The Shadow Realms
by Feirdra
Summary: Why is Ryo acting so weird? Why hasn't anyone noticed anything? And... is Leomon really back?! PART IX FINALLY UP!!! Shuichon meets up with someone we all know and love (not a Tamer!), and the Tamers continue their battle. Jenruki, Hiruki, Ryuki, Jurato
1. A New Beginning

General Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon, and I will not be putting this up again.  
  
Notes:  
  
" " - Speech ' ' - Thought or Italics (meaning accent or emphasis)  
  
Japanese Levels: Child = Rookie Adult = Champion Perfect = Ultimate Ultimate = Mega  
  
Japanese Names: Makino Ruki = Rika Nonaka Lee Jenrya = Henry Wong Matsuda Takato = Takato Matsuki Katou Juri = Jeri Katou Akiyama Ryou = Ryo Shiota Hirokazu = Kazu Shiota Kitagawa Kenta = Kenta Kitagawa Lee Shuichon = Suzie Wong Okaa-san = Mother Otou-san = Father  
  
  
  
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The Shadow Realms: Part I - A New Beginning  
  
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~ The Tamers are in high school. The threat to the Digital World has long since ended, and they had to leave their Digimon behind because their lives were shortened if they stayed in the real world. The portal to the Digital World has somehow dissipated, and the two worlds are cut off from each other. Everyone is 14 and in some cases nearly 15. Hirokazu, Ryou, Juri, Kenta, Takato, Jenrya and Ruki all go to the local Shinjuku High School. Shuichon is still stuck in elementary, and Ai and Makoto are but a distant memory. ~  
  
It was the first day of school and there was some confusion among the 7th graders and the rest of the mass of students that swarmed into the school, trying to find their assigned lockers and classrooms.  
  
Lee Jenrya, strolling down the hall with his books, watched a couple of 7th grade girls start caterwauling as the monitor yelled at them for knocking him down and shook his head.  
  
'It's that time of the year again, he thought, 'Well, at least this year it won't be like trying to fight your way through an elephant stampede.'  
  
He hadn't changed much since the days of the Digital World, except for the fact that he now wore a dark green vest with a gray shirt underneath, and jeans, and had grown slightly taller and a bit more muscular from constant martial arts training.  
  
He turned the corner and bumped into Katou Juri, who dropped her books in surprise and because of the bumping. Jenrya saw that she had brought her D- Ark when it skidded out from among her books over the floor, buzzing static. She was wearing a pink blouse and a pale blue skirt, and had her auburn hair, which had grown out a bit since their days in the Digital World, in a long braid.  
  
"Oh, I'm sorry," he exclaimed, bending down and retrieving her books for her, "Are you okay?"  
  
"Yeah, I'm fine," Juri murmured as she accepted her books gratefully, "Hi, Lee-kun. It's pretty confusing in here, isn't it?"  
  
"Always is," Jenrya grinned, "Well, at least this year bringing food on the first day of school was outlawed."  
  
Juri laughed softly.  
  
"Yeah, I still remember that unbelievable mass food fight last year," she replied, then looked at her watch, "Oh, no! If I don't hurry, I'll be late!"  
  
"What do you mean? We've still got a quarter of an hour," Jenrya asked, confused, as he looked at his own watch.  
  
But Juri was already running off down the hall.  
  
"See you!" she waved and disappeared around the other corner.  
  
***  
  
Jenrya walked slowly to his locker, wondering why Juri was in such a hurry this morning. She'd probably bought cream puffs again, and was planning to scoff them before class started, and get her locker combination, as well as finding her classroom and having some time left over to chatter with her friends. Jenrya shook his head. Juri never seemed to be able to organize her time properly.  
  
'Just like she never seems able to really have fun anymore,' Jenrya sighed, a little sadly.  
  
Even though she'd mostly gotten over Leomon's death and her lengthy confinement within the D-Reaper, Juri would never again be the sunny, cheerful girl whose laughter had spilled frequently and who'd gone around sporting a crazy sock puppet kangaroo.  
  
***  
  
Meanwhile, Makino Ruki and Matsuda Takato had bumped into each other on the street and came in the front door in the middle of a heated discussion about who was the strongest, Sakuyamon or Dukemon. Seeing them, Shiota Hirokazu shook his head. They were at it 'again'. Neither of them seemed about to admit that they probably wouldn't see their Digimon again and always acted as though they had a Digimon fight scheduled on the morrow.  
  
Hirokazu sighed. It wasn't easy for any of them, knowing that they'd probably never see their Digimon again. Even though he'd never have admitted it, he really missed Guardromon sometimes, like when he wanted to fly over the city or had to carry some heavy stuff.  
  
As for Takato and Ruki, they were very good friends, even though Ruki scorned Takato and pretended he was the worst Digimon Tamer she'd ever met.  
  
***  
  
Ruki was wearing her usual blue shirt and jeans, and she was still wearing that cardpocket of hers, even though these days she usually didn't play the card game anymore. She was taller and more slender than she had been 4 years ago. She'd softened up in a lot of ways since their Digital World adventure, but almost never showed this to anyone other than the Tamers and her family, which was why the nickname 'Ice Queen' had stayed with her, derivative from the original 'Digimon Queen', dropped when she'd stopped playing the card game in the big competitions. Her hair had also grown out, and she had it in a kind of ponytail, but it was just as tawny, gold- streaked and spiky as ever.  
  
Takato, meanwhile, still had his scruffy hairstyle, and of course the goggles. He was still short and awkward, even for his 14 years, and wore a white shirt with a black eagle on it, and dark blue shorts. Both of them were wearing their D-Arks.  
  
As for Hirokazu, still much too tall and lanky, he wore a black shirt with a logo like the ones on the blue cards on it and a pair of light brown pants that almost went down over his shoes, and he still had his visor, his spiked hair, his gray-blue eyes and his egotistical manner. Even his self- confident grin was still in place.  
  
***  
  
Hirokazu strode over to the two, who were bickering as much as ever.  
  
"Hey, chumley," he said, clapping Takato on the back.  
  
Then he turned to Ruki with a grin, "Nice ta see ya, Digimon Queen."  
  
Ruki glared at him, but Takato thought he saw a brief blush stain her cheeks.  
  
'What the heck?! I must be imagining things,' the gogglehead thought, naive as ever.  
  
" 'Don't' call me that," Ruki snapped, then was sorry that she'd lost her patience over such a trivial matter.  
  
"Hey, cool it, girl, we've still got the whole day to go through, and since we're in the same class, I don't need you looking like a thundercloud," was Hirokazu's cheerful reply.  
  
Ruki merely shot him a Look and stalked off.  
  
***  
  
Hirokazu turned to Takato, who was red in the face and glaring after Ruki.  
  
"Hey, chumley, what's up with you two today?!" he asked in surprise.  
  
Takato frowned.  
  
"She said that it doesn't matter how strong the Digimon is, that it's the Tamer that counts," he fumed, "I'm not that bad at the card game!"  
  
"No, no, of course you're not, Takato," Kitagawa Kenta said soothingly, appearing out of nowhere, as Hirokazu rolled his eyes at this account of Takato vs. Ruki arguments he'd heard at least a million times before.  
  
'Can't they at least find something new to bicker about?' Hirokazu thought, exasperated.  
  
Kenta still had his glasses (though they weren't large and square anymore; they were smaller and rounder), but his face was less round, and his hair wasn't in the mushroom cut anymore. He actually managed to look passable for a once-dork in his light brown shirt and gray pants.  
  
"Hey, Kenta, where'd you come from?!" Hirokazu exclaimed, putting on an expression of mock-surprise.  
  
Kenta adjusted his glasses before replying.  
  
"Well, I was buying some more Digimon cards. I'm gonna beat you someday, Hirokazu," he replied with unusual firmness as he reached into his pocket and drew out a thick stack of Digimon cards, "Tada! Not bad, eh?"  
  
"Hey, what'd you do, go out and raid the store? Several stores, from the look of this lot," Hirokazu muttered as he looked through the mass of cards, then shook his head and chuckled derisively, "Tough luck, chumley."  
  
"What d'you mean?!" Kenta demanded indignantly.  
  
"These're fakes," Hirokazu handed them back to Kenta with another shake of his head, "See you!"  
  
He turned on his heel and disappeared into the crowd.  
  
***  
  
"Oh, man," Kenta hung his head, discouraged.  
  
"Hey, don't look so down, Kenta, why don't you ask Ruki for some coaching?" Takato said, trying to cheer his friend up.  
  
"H-her?!" Kenta fairly squeaked, "Are you crazy, Takato? She'd eat me alive!"  
  
Takato chuckled. Kenta had never quite been able to wrap his mind around the idea that Ruki wasn't a tigress who ate her opponents. At least not anymore.  
  
"Then you'll just have to keep on losing!" he replied before also eclipsing himself.  
  
***  
  
Left alone, Kenta wiped away tears of disappointment and then started out for his locker too. It wouldn't do to cry on the first day of school. On the way there, he met Jenrya.  
  
"Oh, hey, Jenrya," he mumbled uncertainly.  
  
"Hi, Kenta, how's it going?" Jenrya returned the greeting good-naturedly.  
  
"Uh, uh, good," Kenta replied before hurrying off.  
  
Jenrya watched him running toward the corner and then tripping over his own feet before landing on one of the girls. He shook his head again.  
  
'What's with him this morning?'  
  
***  
  
Meanwhile Ryou was surrounded by a gag of girls all vying for his attention in the corridor. It was flattering at first, but by now he was starting to find it tedious, always being surrounded by a chattering, flirting crowd, not one of whom he liked, all making the eyes at him until he thought he'd go bananas.  
  
'They are so stupid,' he thought exasperatedly, 'They must be too brainless to know how to do anything but follow the good-looking guys around.'  
  
Just then Juri flew by. Ryou eyed her with jealous interest. She'd gotten quite a lot prettier over the summer, and that new blouse was rather fetching.  
  
He shook his head to take his mind off of her and, finally freeing himself from the girls with a terse, "Lemme move, girls, I can't breathe," he went to his locker, which was right beside Takato's.  
  
***  
  
Takato came up to his locker and was surprised to find Ryou there. Instantly, the tension in the air between them was palpable. They stood there staring daggers at each other for a moment, then Ryou slammed his locker shut, ignoring the way it drew stares, and stormed off down the hall. Takato shook his head. Ryou had 'still' not forgiven him for being liked by Juri more than him.  
  
* Flashback *  
  
Ryou: Hey, Juri, are you hurt?  
  
Takato: Katou-san, are you okay?  
  
He offered her his hand at the same moment that Ryou offered her his.  
  
Juri: Yes, I'm fine.  
  
She took Takato's hand, and smiled gratefully as he helped her up.  
  
Juri: Whew! Arigato, Takato-kun. You're a really nice guy.  
  
Ryou fumed visibly.  
  
* Flashback ends *  
  
Takato closed his locker and started down the hall. He wondered why Ryou had to fight with him like this. Granted, he didn't like Ryou either, for the older boy had a condescending manner and mocked him subtly every chance he got, but given the chance, he'd have been perfectly willing to be friendly. And Ryou showed off worse than Hirokazu. No wonder Juri didn't like him either. Takato grinned. He was looking forward to seeing her in class.  
  
***  
  
Meanwhile, Hirokazu crashed into Ryou as he came storming around the corner.  
  
"Whoa, what's the hurry, chumley?" Hirokazu asked as he gathered up his books and checked to make sure his D-Ark wasn't damaged.  
  
"Out of my way," Ryou snapped, shoving him aside before continuing.  
  
Hirokazu looked after him with a frown.  
  
'What a loser,' he thought angrily, 'No wonder Juri liked Takato better.'  
  
He looked down at his watch. Two minutes left. He'd better get to class.  
  
***  
  
Ruki was already sitting in class, listening to the mindless chatter of the other students while she kept looking at the door. When Ryou came in, she watched him go to his seat. She didn't like him much. He was always challenging her at the card game. These games usually ended up going on for hours until Ruki tired of it all and called a tie, then walked off.  
  
'I know he wants to win, but does he have to hassle me all the time?!' she thought irritably.  
  
Granted, he was good, but he needn't show off like that. He should challenge somebody else for a change. Like Hirokazu, who at least had fairly decent card game skills. Not like that loser Takato. Ruki frowned at the thought of him.  
  
***  
  
Just then Hirokazu strode into class with his usual I'm-the-best-and- to-heck-with-the-rest demeanor. Ruki gave him a thoughtful scan before he came over and dropped into the seat beside her.  
  
"So, got over this morning yet, Streaker?" he mocked.  
  
She made a half-hearted swipe at him. He chuckled and dodged it with ease. He was always calling her names, just to annoy her. Ruki didn't know why she didn't just send him to hell or bash him to a pulp like the rest of the guys who kept simpering about her looks or mocking her for being the Digimon Queen. He wasn't the same.  
  
Hirokazu was different. He'd always been. Back when she'd first met him, she'd noticed that right away. He projected an air of self-confidence and had a to-heck-with-the-world-I'm-doing-what-I-want manner, but she had a feeling he had something hidden under there. After all, she'd had something to hide during her life as well, so she was a good judge. And she'd been right. Well, in one way or another.  
  
* Flashback *  
  
"Look, I know you're upset, but Andromon's just doing what he thinks is best to help you guys,"  
  
"You've gotta learn to stand up for yourselves, or someone like Orochimon's going to walk all over you!"  
  
"Is this guy like the bravest Digimon or what, fighting Orochimon all by himself!"  
  
"Guardromon, are you okay, buddy? You're not broken again, are you?"  
  
"I've gotta help Takato! But how?"  
  
* Flashback ends *  
  
Ruki nodded thoughtfully. Yes, Hirokazu had something about him. Even though he acted like an idiot most of the time, and was obnoxious, as well as lazy, thoughtless, and a loudmouth, and didn't take things seriously, sometimes... Well, sometimes he actually was a really nice guy and helped them for a change. When you thought about it really hard he actually 'was' worthy of becoming a Tamer. And... There was just something 'about' him.  
  
Ruki shook her head. She'd never understand Hirokazu. Even though he seemed really simple, when you really thought about it he was actually unbelievably complex. Ruki took her mind firmly off of the matter, which she had turned over so many times in her head.  
  
***  
  
She then realized that the class had started and the teacher was asking her a question. Someone whispered the answer to her and she was amazed when she used it and it was the right answer. She scanned the class and realized that Jenrya was sitting right behind her with Takato beside him and Juri beside Takato across the aisle. She sighed, but gave Jenrya a small smile anyway to thank him for his help. He grinned back.  
  
***  
  
"Hey again, Katou-san," Takato smiled at her.  
  
"Hi, Takato-kun," Juri gave a slight smile back, causing Takato to blush.  
  
'I wish I didn't always do that in front of her,' he thought.  
  
"So, looks like Nasukio-san is our teacher again this year. He looks even more like a frog than usual," Takato commented quietly.  
  
Juri laughed and Takato smiled, too, pleased that he'd been able to get a rare laugh out of her.  
  
'I wish she'd laugh like that more often,' he thought sadly, remembering how she'd been before, 'Maybe she should never have gone to the Digital World with us.'  
  
***  
  
As the day wore on, Ryou sat in class, bored out of his mind. Kenta the Nerd No. 1 of the Universe sat beside him, well, at least there was one of the Tamers near him, but he would have preferred it be Juri instead of Kenta. Or maybe even Ruki. At least she had some spirit. And that Hirokazu fella somehow always managed to make him laugh. Granted, Hirokazu could probably make anyone laugh if he wanted to, even Ruki. Ryou sighed enviously. Maybe if he had Hirokazu's natural ability to charm, he might actually have been able to win over Juri.  
  
His jaw tightened with anger. Just thinking of her choosing that scrawny gogglehead brat over himself, the popular, good-looking Ryou, was enough to make him want to smash something. He gave Takato, who was over on the other side of the class with the rest of the Tamers, a thoroughly black look that made Kenta tremble.  
  
***  
  
Just then, Ryou's D-Ark buzzed, and Kenta looked over in alarm. Ruki, Jenrya, Hirokazu and Takato were all startled when their D-Arks acted up as well, Juri looked over curiously and Kenta was sorry he hadn't brought his D-Ark too, but just then a beam of light sped along the floor to him. His D- Ark had actually come to him. They had destroyed the evil that plagued the Digital World and put an end to the abnormal bio-emerging, so what could be happening?  
  
***  
  
~ Hmmm. That ending. This is my first Digimon fanfic, so please review and tell me if it's too long, too short, concentrating too much on trivial matters, descriptions too long, whatever. Oh, and tell me if the title is lousy or not, which I'm sure it is. Thanks for reading! ~ 


	2. Back to the Digital Side

~Well, heeeere's the second chapter of my first little venture into the world of fanfiction! I would've had it up sooner if I hadn't had to change all the italic marks into quotation marks, for some reason I can't get the goddamn html code to work. Anywayz, from the reviews, I gather that there're quite a few indignant Ryou fans out there, sorry, y'guys, don't worry though, it'll get worse. Sorry again, bear with me, I'll have him decent around or after the fourth chapter. So please refrain from flaming, thanks to y'all! R&R!!!~  
  
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The Shadow Realms: Part II - Back to the Digital Side  
  
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The Tamers' D-Arks were all buzzing so loudly they were forced to stuff them into their shirts and whisper rather loudly because they were afraid the teacher would hear and come to investigate. Juri just looked sadly down at the static-filled screen of her yellow D-Ark, which she was cradling in her hands, and Takato kept glancing worriedly in her direction.  
  
'Oh, no. She's not gonna start that moping again, is she?' Hirokazu thought, also looking at her.  
  
Juri was oblivious to the world at that moment. Her soft hazel eyes filled with tears that fell, one by one, onto her slender hands.  
  
'Oh, Leomon.'  
  
Just thinking about her lion friend hurt. Juri shook her head angrily. She'd gotten over that! Hadn't she? A vivid image of herself, sitting with Leomon out on the balcony of her home, slid into her mind.  
  
'Apparently not,' she thought, as a fresh wave of tears made its appearance, and the ache in her heart grew more pronounced than ever.  
  
***  
  
Jenrya tapped Ruki on the shoulder and she turned to fix him with an inquisitive violet stare.  
  
"What?"  
  
"Look, whatever this is, we've got to check it out," Jenrya began.  
  
"I 'know', Jenrya, but in case you didn't notice, we happen to be in 'class'," Ruki interrupted in a sour tone.  
  
"Let me finish, Ruki. We can't all go at once, but maybe one or two of us could go to investigate, then report back here. So what do you say?" Jenrya smiled.  
  
"It's worth a try, I guess," Ruki replied with a touch of uncertainty in her voice.  
  
"Okay, so you and I will go, since we've both got spotless records," Jenrya winked at her and Ruki had to hide a slight smile.  
  
Takato had already accidentally soaked the principal with milk during last year's mass food fight, while Juri had been caught eating cream puffs in class. Hirokazu had been sent to the principal's office for impertinence more than once, Ryou had been sent to the same place for fighting, and Kenta, well, Kenta had accidentally hit a baseball into a school window.  
  
"Okay, let's do it," she whispered.  
  
Jenrya waited only a few more moments before putting up his hand.  
  
"What is it, Gordon?" Mr. Nasukio paused in the middle of the incredibly boring speech he gave every year to introduce himself, even though this year he had the same students as last year.  
  
He made 'Gordon' sound like 'Goddon'.  
  
Takato chuckled and Hirokazu burst out laughing.  
  
"It's Jenrya, sensei," Jenrya reminded the teacher, trying to keep the exasperation out of his voice, before continuing, "I have a dentist's appointment today, and, er, Okaa-san's gonna pick me up in 5 minutes."  
  
"Do you have a note from your parents?" Mr. Nasukio asked.  
  
For a moment, Ruki thought she saw Jenrya hesitate. Then he walked up to the front and gave a note to the teacher. To everyone's amazement, Mr. Nasukio nodded and let him go.  
  
'I never knew Jenrya could set up a lie so quickly,' Ruki thought, impressed, 'Must be my bad influence... Or was it true?'  
  
She chuckled softly.  
  
***  
  
Meanwhile, Jenrya hurried out of the school and then took out his D-Ark. It was in compass mode.  
  
'I wonder what could be going on?' he thought, 'How could a Digimon possibly have come through again?'  
  
And what could the Tamers do about it? Terriermon was gone, and so were all the other Digimon.  
  
'We'll have to think of something,' he told himself, trying not to think about Terriermon and failing.  
  
Jenrya sighed heavily and waited for Ruki to show up.  
  
***  
  
Ruki waited for about ten minutes before putting her hand up.  
  
"What is it, Tipa? (he made it sound like 'teapot')" Mr. Nasukio asked, annoyed to be interrupted in the middle of a lecture on geometrical figures.  
  
"It's Ruki, sensei (A/N: Um, did I use that right?)," Rika replied soberly, giving Hirokazu a death glare when he let out a hearty guffaw.  
  
He winked roguishly at her, and she tried to ignore him.  
  
"Um, my mother wants me to go to a fashion show with her. She's picking me up soon," Ruki continued, somewhat unnerved.  
  
She produced a note and the teacher let her go. The note had actually been from her mother, but it had been for later. Ruki had changed the written time. She hurried out and joined Henry.  
  
"Sorry to keep you waiting. I didn't want Nasukio-san to get suspicious," Ruki said shortly, "So where are we going?"  
  
Jenrya pointed to his D-Ark and she took out hers.  
  
"C'mon," he told her, gray eyes anxious, "We've no time to lose."  
  
They took off in the direction indicated by their D-Ark compasses.  
  
***  
  
Meanwhile, back in class, Takato and Hirokazu were squirming with impatience to know what this new threat was. Finally Mr. Nasukio lost it when Hirokazu shot an eraser at him while he was writing on the blackboard and hit him in the head, making him yelp. Everyone cracked up.  
  
"HIROKAZU!!!" Mr. Nasukio thundered.  
  
"Yes, sensei?" Hirokazu answered promptly, looking politely puzzled.  
  
"GET OUT OF THIS CLASS AND INTO THE PRINCIPAL'S OFFICE IMMEDIATELY!!!!" the teacher roared.  
  
"Sir, yes, sir!" Hirokazu made a mock-salute before fairly skipping out of the class.  
  
'That was too easy,' he thought, laughing at the teacher's fury.  
  
Hirokazu took out his brown D-Ark, 'Now let's find out what the heck is going on here.'  
  
He tore out of the school, hoping to find Jenrya and Ruki. When he didn't, he, too, followed the arrow on his D-Ark compass.  
  
***  
  
"Katou-san, are you as bored as I am?" Takato whispered to her.  
  
Juri yawned.  
  
"Yeah," she murmured, with a glance down at her useless D-Ark, "I wish I could go with Lee-kun and Ruki-chan."  
  
Takato shook his head in exasperation, trying not to show how much Juri's demeanor saddened him.  
  
"Yeah, so do I, and Hirokazu's probably with them too," he replied unhappily, adding silently, 'It's so unfair. But if I ditched school and Mom found out, she'd ground me for life!'  
  
***  
  
Ryou, meanwhile, was also very impatient to get the hell outta there.  
  
'Damn!' he thought, fuming, 'That puny toothpick Hirokazu and those two goody-two-shoes get to have all the luck, running around investigating what could be... 'it', while I'm stuck here listening to the teacher blabber on about some stupid triangle area thing! AARGH!!!'  
  
He slammed his fist into the desk. Kenta looked over in alarm.  
  
"Uuuh. Ryou-san, are you okay?" he asked, his voice shaking slightly in spite of his efforts to keep it steady, his glasses sliding down on his nose.  
  
"Just leave me alone," Ryou's voice was low and silky, and definitely dangerous.  
  
"Um, okay, um, right," Kenta turned away hurriedly.  
  
***  
  
A girl behind Takato tapped him on the shoulder.  
  
"Oh, hey, Nikki," Takato said when he saw who it was.  
  
Nikki's hair was still quite short, but she'd dyed bright blue streaks into it.  
  
"Hi," Nikki smiled, "You're still wearing your goggles, Takato."  
  
"Oh, I am?!" Takato put his hand up to his head, startled, and quickly took the goggles off, thankful that Mr. Nasukio hadn't seen them, "Thanks for the heads-up, Nikki."  
  
Nikki giggled, "Anytime."  
  
"Takato-kun," Juri's soft voice, barely more than a whisper, came over his shoulder.  
  
"Yeah?" he turned back to her, "What is it, Katou-san?"  
  
"What do you think is happening? I mean, we did make peace with the Digimon sovereign, and he was the one making Digimon come into our world to attack and stuff," Juri whispered breathlessly, "So how could they appear again?"  
  
"I dunno, Katou-san," Takato replied, "I'm not even sure they are appearing. We'll have to wait for Jen and Ruki to come back. Maybe Hirokazu will have something to tell us as well. It could be just a fluke. Then again, if they are appearing, what could we do? Our Digimon aren't here anymore."  
  
Takato bit his tongue and turned away as Juri looked down at her D-Ark again.  
  
'STUPID, Takato, 'stupid'! Just the thing to say to make her feel better,' he berated himself, then thought sadly, 'Guilmon, I wish you were here.'  
  
"It's okay, Takato-kun," Juri laid her hand on his shoulder, correctly interpreting his silence, "If the Digimon are here again, maybe that means y-your Digimon are going to come back, too."  
  
"Yeah, maybe," Takato said doubtfully, but he turned and smiled at Juri, whose eyes were brimming with tears, "Katou-san, don't look so sad. Please?"  
  
Juri turned away and swiped a hand across her face.  
  
"I'll be okay," her voice was shaky and barely audible.  
  
Takato sighed, wondering if Juri would ever really be okay.  
  
***  
  
Meanwhile, Jenrya and Ruki had ended up in the park, and were scouting for a Digital Field. They rounded a corner and found themselves practically nose to nose (or rather nose to feet) with a huge plant-like creature. This strange creature, which looked like nightmarish cross between a sunflower with glowing red eyes and a tangle of vines, had a face that looked like a black and white sunflower and small round bluish-black faces at the tips of some of its vine-like roots.  
  
"Whoa! A Digimon!" Jenrya backed away.  
  
"Aw, nuts!" Ruki cried as she tried to consult her D-Power, "This thing's useless without Renamon!"  
  
"Blossomon..." Jenrya was muttering to himself, searching through his cards, "I've got it, Ruki! It's Darkblossomon, a Perfect level Dark Digimon! Its special attack is Slashing Vines!"  
  
Ruki backed into him as the great Digimon came at them, vines/roots/bluish- black heads flailing in all directions, knocking down a couple of trees and crushing a bench, "Who cares what it's called, what are we going to do about it?"  
  
"Ruki, this is bad. It's not contained in a Digital Field!" Jenrya yelled as Darkblossomon let out an ear-splitting screech.  
  
"I know, I know!" Ruki replied agitatedly as she stared up at the Digimon.  
  
"We've got to do something before it starts wrecking the city!" Jenrya cried, trying to evade the great whipping green roots.  
  
"I 'know', Mr. Obvious, but without our Digimon, there's nothing we can do to stop him!" Ruki yelled, "Aaaah!"  
  
She was knocked over by a flailing root.  
  
"Ruki! Are you okay?" Jenrya was at her side in an instant and helped her up.  
  
"Yeah, I'm fine," Ruki dusted herself off.  
  
Just then, both of them heard a shout.  
  
***  
  
"What the heck?! What is this, the sunflower convention?!" Hirokazu stood behind them, staring up at Darkblossomon.  
  
"Oh, great," Ruki said with extreme annoyance, though she actually was rather pleased to see him, "What are 'you' doing here, Hirokazu?!"  
  
"You didn't think I'd let you have all the fun, did ya?" Hirokazu winked at her before turning to Jenrya, "So what 'is' going on?"  
  
"What does it look like?," Jenrya replied sarcastically, "That's Darkblossomon, an Ultimate level Dark Digimon. Look out!"  
  
He lunged and knocked Hirokazu out of the way of one of the flailing vines. They both landed on Ruki, who let out a yelp.  
  
"Hey! Get off me, you clumsy clods!" she shoved both boys off of her and got up, wincing, "You two are heavier than a pack of elephants!"  
  
"Gee, thanks," Hirokazu replied sarcastically, "But right now we have a waaay bigger problem."  
  
They all looked up at Darkblossomon, who reared up menacingly and shot vines at them with astonishing speed.  
  
***  
  
Meanwhile in class Ryou suddenly shot to his feet, his sky blue eyes going wide with shock.  
  
"Ryou! Sit down!" Mr. Nasukio snapped.  
  
But Ryou didn't hear him. He was staring out at the giant twisted version of Blossomon in the park. Soon the whole class was assembled around the windows, staring. Takato, Juri, Ryou and Kenta slipped out of the classroom and hurried outside.  
  
"C'mon guys, the others could be in trouble!" Takato yelled as he followed the arrow on his D-Ark and started running.  
  
"What's going on, Takato? How come that Digimon wasn't in a Digital Field?!" Kenta asked as he ran beside Takato, trying to catch his breath and then falling back.  
  
"I have no idea, but what I do know is that this is really, really bad!" Takato called back over his shoulder, "Come on, Katou-san, hurry!"  
  
She was trailing despondently at the back of the group, head bowed and feet dragging.  
  
"What's the point," Juri whispered, "We can't do anything about it."  
  
"Well, we'll try!" Takato dropped back to Juri's side, reached over, took her by the shoulders and shook her, "Look, Katou-san, don't be like this. They need our help. We can't give up just because it 'seems' hopeless!"  
  
Juri sighed and ran faster.  
  
***  
  
They arrived at the park to find Ruki and Hirokazu trying to free Jenrya, who was being strangled by one of Darkblossomon's vines. All together, they managed it, and hurried out of range, but keeping Darkblossomon within sight. They all ended up in a clump of bushes behind a tree. Only then did they allow themselves to relax slightly. Juri's braid was all messed up so she undid it and shook her long hair out over her shoulders. Ryou gave her an appraising glance, but didn't say anything, noting her red eyes and sad expression.  
  
"Takato, that thing's dangerous, it could wreck the whole city, the way it's going," Jenrya whispered hoarsely, massaging his neck and looking very pale.  
  
"I know, Jen, but there's nothing we can do about it," Takato replied, his voice shaking very slightly, "Without our Digimon, we're powerless against him."  
  
"Then we have to go get our Digimon!" Ruki put in.  
  
"Yeah, but how?" Kenta asked, as usual completely at sea.  
  
"Go to the Digital World again! Duh," Hirokazu said, shaking his head at Kenta's stupidity, "Baka."  
  
"Hey!"  
  
"But while we're gone, that thing's gonna wreck the city!" Takato shook his head.  
  
"Whatever. Let Yamaki-san take care of it," Hirokazu replied airily.  
  
"If you stop for a moment to 'think', Hirokazu, we don't even know where Yamaki-san is!" Ruki snapped at him, rolling her eyes when he merely grinned back impudently.  
  
'What can he be thinking?! There could be lives at stake here, and he's acting like we discovered a new leaf in the rhododendron patch,' she thought, exasperated.  
  
"Guys, stop fighting, we need a plan," Jenrya snapped.  
  
Rika stared at him. She'd rarely heard Jenrya use that kind of tone.  
  
'He must be really worried,' she thought, feeling rather anxious herself.  
  
Jenrya was usually so levelheaded that when 'he' started acting unlike himself you knew the situation at hand was getting really bad.  
  
***  
  
Then they realized Darkblossomon was almost upon them when a tree nearby suddenly crashed to the ground. Its roots showed starkly in the air like grotesquely twisted dead fingers reaching for the sky. The youngsters scattered as the Digimon rained chunks of torn concrete and pieces of bench and tree upon them, then reassembled a few yards away, under the cover of another grove of trees.  
  
"We don't have much time," Jenrya said hurriedly as they watched Darkblossomon knock down some more trees and crush a fountain, "We need to figure out a way to stop him, but."  
  
"But we don't have anything to stop him with, except our D-Arks, which are useless without our Digimon, and since our Digimon aren't here, there's nothing we can do," Ruki finished for him.  
  
He nodded, looking rather discouraged.  
  
'I wish Terriermon was here,' Jenrya thought sadly.  
  
He missed his old friend more than ever.  
  
'He'd probably be Momentaiing us until either Ryou or Ruki lost it,' Jenrya had to chuckle at the image, despite the ache that always came whenever he thought of Terriermon now.  
  
"Guys, we're talking in circles," Hirokazu complained, exasperated.  
  
Everyone glared at him, which didn't sway him one bit.  
  
"We all know that we can't do anything as long as our Digimon aren't here, and that if we leave to get them, by the time we get back, there might not be any city left to defend. So could we get some new facts into this ancient whirlpool?!" he ranted.  
  
"Shut up, Hirokazu," Ruki spoke for all of them.  
  
Hirokazu looked slightly hurt, "Hey! I was just telling the truth, you know!"  
  
"Well the truth won't help if we can't find a way to stop that Digimon!" Ruki retorted, angry with herself for getting so worked up over such a small thing.  
  
***  
  
Just then something totally unexpected happened. Darkblossomon started to fade out, like a picture sinking into water, and within moments, he was completely gone. There was no sign that he'd ever been there, except for the wrecked section of the park and a slight glimmer of some of the data he'd left behind floating in the air.  
  
"Uh, guys, what just happened?!" Takato was the first to speak as the others stared, stunned.  
  
"He just. disappeared," Jenrya replied quietly, his gray eyes puzzled.  
  
'Something's not right. When Digimon come into our world, they usually don't want to go back. So what could have made him disappear like that?' he wondered.  
  
"Yeah, duh, but why?" Ruki sounded as confused as everyone felt, "Did something attack him?"  
  
"I didn't see anything," Hirokazu spoke up, "And I had a perfect view of all of that sunflower thing."  
  
"Neither did I," Juri said, "This is creepy, you guys."  
  
'That Darkblossomon. was like something out of one of my nightmares.' She trembled slightly, and Takato gave her a reassuring smile.  
  
"Well, he's gone now," he said confidently, then noticed Kenta was looking kind of weird, "Kenta? Kenta! Yoohoo!"  
  
***  
  
Kenta was staring off at something in the distance.  
  
'Could it be?' his numb mind had absorbed so many shocks today that he simply didn't realize what he was looking at, 'But it's not possible.'  
  
He started when Takato waved his hand in front of his face.  
  
"Kenta, you look like you just saw a ghost!" Hirokazu remarked.  
  
"Look, you guys, a portal!" Kenta pointed.  
  
The others followed his trembling finger with their gazes, and sure enough, at the exact spot where Darkblossomon had been, a portal just like the one through which they had first gone to the Digital World had appeared. Except this time it was above ground and somewhat bigger.  
  
"Whoa, weird," Hirokazu remarked, but his slate blue eyes were filled with excitement.  
  
"So, do we go?" Takato asked nobody in particular.  
  
"Of course we do!" Hirokazu yelled exuberantly, looking like he was ready to burst, jumping up into the air (and just missing kicking Kenta in the head - "Hey! Watch it, Hirokazu!") and raising his fist, "I can't wait to see Guardromon again!"  
  
'This is so awesome! Guardromon, buddy, here I come!' his thoughts were as wildly euphoric as his demeanor.  
  
"This could be some sort of sign," Jenrya said thoughtfully, "I think the Digital World needs us!"  
  
'I hope Terriermon didn't get into too much trouble while I was gone.'  
  
"Quit standing there like statues, goggleheads, that portal's not going to stay there forever, you know," Ruki cut in on their reflections.  
  
'Renamon, I'm finally coming back. It's been so long. too long.'  
  
Suddenly she turned her piercing gaze on Juri, who was staring at the ground. The brown-haired girl suddenly raised her head, and there was a very sad expression on her face, but she looked determined.  
  
"Ruki-chan's right, if we want to go, we have to go right now!" Juri said with unusual firmness of tone, causing Ruki to sigh at the choice of honorific.  
  
'I'll just have to deal with it,' Juri thought, repressing the flood of memories the idea of going back to the Digital World had released.  
  
And so, when Takato asked her, very gently, if she was going to be all right, Juri was able to reply in a perfectly calm tone, with a composed expression, "I'm fine, don't worry about me."  
  
***  
  
"So, everybody in?" Takato asked, his happy grin stretching from ear to ear.  
  
"YEAH!" everyone raised their fist except for Ryou, who simply nodded.  
  
'It has succeeded,' Ryou experienced no pleasure whatsoever at this thought.  
  
"Great! Let's go!" Takato made it sound somewhat like a battle cry.  
  
'Finally! I knew I'd see Guilmon again. We're too close to be separated forever!' he thought happily as he led them to the portal.  
  
***  
  
And so, the Tamers set off for the unknown once more, this time armed with nothing more than each other's friendship and their hopes of seeing their beloved Digimon partners once more, after such a long, difficult separation.  
  
When they had gone, the portal dissipated. Little did they realize what terrible dangers awaited them in that strange, eerily beautiful place they called the Digital World.  
  
***  
  
~ So how was the second part of my Digimon Tamers fanfic? I fear that it is not quite as good as the first, but, I ask for your opinions. Gimme reviews, y'all! ~ 


	3. Snowed In

~ Well, here's the third chapter! I'm so sorry about that stupid little mix- up with Chapter I, but I had my mother breathing down my neck and yelling at me to get the heck off the Net, sorry again. And for the person who asked, a botch is a mistake, basically, just a bit more stupid. Hope you enjoy it, the couples thing might not seem very apparent right now, but I'm doing the best I can without turning this whole adventure (for that is what it is, of course) into a sappy little honeymoon. And to do that *starts preaching a sermon to herself* I must never, ever write before bedtime, never write right after I have just finished reading a romance-stuffed book, never. Oh, I'm sorry, was I in the middle of an introduction here? I do believe I was, anyway, R, E&R!!! ~  
  
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The Shadow Realms: Part III - Snowed In  
  
---------------------------------------------------  
  
Once again, the Tamers tumbled through the strange, eerie green dimension of glowing data marks.  
  
'I wish we didn't have to go through this every time we went to the Digital World,' Takato thought queasily as they rocketed through the digital layers.  
  
Finally, they fell the through the final layer and through a network of data islands. Then, just like last time, they all crashed into the ground. Luckily for them, they landed in a snowdrift, so no one was seriously hurt, but they did start an avalanche that flew downwards like a wild beast. They realized they had landed on a snow-covered cliff.  
  
***  
  
"Oh, great. The perfect place to land," Hirokazu remarked sarcastically, "So now what?!"  
  
"Patience, Hirokazu," Ruki replied just as sarcastically, "Maybe if you stay in the way of those hurricane-force winds long enough, we'll all get our dearest wish and you'll tumble over the edge of the cliff."  
  
"What?!" Hirokazu realized that he was teetering on the edge of the cliff.  
  
Just then a gale-force wind swept up and Ruki's prediction came to pass. Juri let out a shrill cry and buried her face in her hands. As Hirokazu was tumbling over the edge, Jenrya, with the reflexes born from years of martial arts training, lunged out and grabbed his wrist.  
  
"Hold on!" Jenrya tried to protect his face from the stinging, icy snow and the freezing wind with one arm while he pulled Hirokazu up from below the cliff with the other.  
  
"Don't let go, pal, I don't wanna die yet!" Hirokazu grabbed the edge of the cliff with one hand and hoisted himself back up.  
  
Jenrya flopped back in the snow, trying to catch his breath. The shock of seeing Hirokazu go over the cliff combined with the stress of pulling him up against the terrible winds had exhausted him.  
  
"Hey, Jen, you okay?" Takato's face swam into view above him.  
  
"Yeah." Jenrya sat up slowly.  
  
***  
  
Hirokazu was crouching beside him, looking unusually pale for himself, and Ruki had turned away to hide her relief at seeing Hirokazu safe and sound. She had had to stifle a cry of horror when he'd tumbled over the cliff, and wondered if she'd made that happen. After all, anything could happen in the Digital World.  
  
'I hope something of that kind doesn't happen again anytime soon,' she thought shakily, trying to calm herself down, 'Lucky Jenrya acted so fast.'  
  
She smiled, just a little. You could 'always' count on Jenrya (well, almost; he 'was' only human, after all), because of his level-headedness and his caring nature.  
  
***  
  
"Thank goodness you're all right, Hirokazu, you sure gave us a scare," Juri laid her hand on his shoulder, looking faint with relief.  
  
"Yeah, buddy, I thought you were going to end up in a frame on a funeral casket for a moment there," Kenta wiped his forehead.  
  
"Don't try that again, Hirokazu, it's unbecoming," Ruki put in, turning back to the group.  
  
"You think I'd be crazy enough to do that again?!" Hirokazu exclaimed, pulling a face.  
  
"Yes!" everybody proclaimed in unison, even Ryou.  
  
"Hey, a guy's got feelings, you know," Hirokazu said, putting on a fake indignant expression.  
  
***  
  
"Enough," Jenrya said, still rather breathless, "We need to find shelter. If we stay out here too long we'll all turn into snowmen or ice blocks."  
  
"Wouldn't that be a sight," Ruki remarked dryly.  
  
"Uh-huh," Takato agreed, "We definitely need to find a place to hole up in."  
  
"For once, goggleheads, you've actually come up with a plausible plan," Ruki nodded, "Let's start searching, shall we?"  
  
The others agreed fervently. The cold was seeping into their bones.  
  
***  
  
Half an hour later.  
  
"My fingers are totally numb," Hirokazu complained, staring at his stiff fingers with a woebegone expression.  
  
'I wish I'd never come here. I want my warm, cozy room!'  
  
"Quit whining, Hirokazu, we've got enough to worry about," Ruki snapped at him as she dug through the snow beside him.  
  
'Though I can't blame him. Brrrrr. This cold. It's unbelievable.'  
  
***  
  
Just then, a little farther away from them, Jenrya collapsed into the snowdrift he'd been digging in.  
  
"I'm all right," he smiled weakly as everyone immediately assembled around him, all of them with various degrees of concern in their faces.  
  
He tried to stand and found that his legs refused to support him, "I guess I'm just a little worn out."  
  
"Take a break, Jenrya, we don't need you overreaching yourself," Ruki advised with unusual gentleness.  
  
'If he gets sick or something, where would we be?!'  
  
"But." Jenrya began, trying to stand again.  
  
"No buts, Jen," Takato forced him firmly down onto a blanket they'd spread in the snow, "Katou-san, you stay with him and make sure he's all right."  
  
Juri nodded, "You can count on me!"  
  
***  
  
She sat down beside Jenrya and looked at him with concern as the others moved off in various directions, though making certain they didn't lose sight of the two.  
  
"Jenrya, are you sure you're all right?" she asked quietly.  
  
"I'm just tired," Jenrya said with a slight edge to his voice, "It's not illegal."  
  
When Juri looked a bit hurt, he sighed.  
  
"I'm sorry, Katou-san, I don't know why I'm not acting a bit like myself today," Jenrya said apologetically, putting his hand on her arm.  
  
"That's okay, Lee-kun," Juri smiled at him, "We all get a bit cranky sometimes."  
  
'Still, I hope he'll get back to normal soon. He's always been so reliable.'  
  
***  
  
Meanwhile, Ruki was digging with Ryou and Kenta on either side of her. "Ah." she gasped softly as her fingers became too numb to dig any further.  
  
'This is not good. If we don't find shelter soon, we'll all get frostbite.'  
  
"Ruki-san, are you okay?" Kenta looked over with concern.  
  
Ruki managed to smile, despite her face muscles being forced to work harder than usual.  
  
"Yeah," she nodded and Kenta turned back to his digging.  
  
Ryou had not reacted at all, but Ruki noticed his keen gaze fix upon her. Just then he spoke.  
  
"Maybe you should go hang with them for awhile," he said curtly, gesturing to Juri and Jenrya.  
  
'We certainly don't need anyone getting frostbite from digging through this stuff for too long,' he thought, rubbing his own numb fingers before resuming his digging.  
  
Ruki shrugged, nodded and joined the blanket group, both of whom were beckoning to her.  
  
***  
  
Over where Takato and Hirokazu were digging, the going was not much better. Takato's fingers were stiff and numb and he could barely see where he was digging. Twice he bumped into Hirokazu. Hirokazu, meanwhile, was complaining about not being able to keep his eyes open.  
  
'It's been almost an hour, and not a sign of a nook or cranny where we might find shelter,' Takato thought, experiencing the beginnings of panic, 'We've got to find shelter! We've 'got' to!'  
  
Just then Jenrya called him to join him, Ruki and Juri on the blanket. He went over, leaving Hirokazu with his thoughts.  
  
'There's gotta be a way outta here,' Hirokazu thought with extreme frustration, 'If only one of the Digimon. Of course!'  
  
He smacked himself on the forehead, not even feeling the smack as he turned and began making his way slowly through the waist deep snow towards the blanket group.  
  
***  
  
Kenta and Ryou had joined the blanket group when they saw that some sort of council meeting was going on.  
  
Jenrya was saying to Ruki, Juri and Takato: "Guys, we should stop digging. There's no way we're going to be able to find 'anything' in an all-out blizzard like this."  
  
He looked around and winced as icy snow was whipped into his face and eyes.  
  
"You're right, Lee-kun," Juri said despondently.  
  
Tears glimmered in her soft hazel eyes.  
  
'It's so cold. I want to go home.'  
  
Takato put his hand on her arm.  
  
"Hey, it'll be all right, Katou-san," he said reassuringly, "We'll find a way outta here. Somehow."  
  
Ryou sat down on Juri's other side and put a hand on her other shoulder. Sandwiched between the two boys, both emanating reassurance and comfort, Juri managed to wipe away her tears and smile weakly.  
  
Ruki, meanwhile, was discussing the situation with Jenrya while Kenta looked on.  
  
"Jenrya, we've got to get off this mountain!" Ruki cried.  
  
"But it's far too dangerous," Jenrya replied anxiously, "In this kind of weather, you could walk straight off a cliff and not know until it was too late."  
  
Ruki just shook her head and looked tense.  
  
***  
  
Just then Hirokazu came running up, his whole face lit up with excitement.  
  
"What is it 'now', Hirokazu?" Ruki looked at him warily. She didn't trust his ideas, because they were often wild and completely crazy.  
  
"Ruki, call Renamon!" Hirokazu told her, practically dancing on the spot in his excitement.  
  
"Call Renamon?!" Ruki looked up at him quizzically.  
  
"Of course!" Jenrya's face lit up too, "Why didn't 'I' think of that?!"  
  
" 'Cus I'm the smartest of this group!" Hirokazu put his hands on his hips and beamed, "What do you think?"  
  
"Dream on, Hirokazu."  
  
Ruki looked from one boy to the other uncomprehendingly, getting more and more annoyed.  
  
"Would you guys mind letting me in on your little secret?!" she finally cried, exasperated.  
  
"Renamon can hear you calling no matter where you are, right Ruki?!" Hirokazu yelled over the howling winds.  
  
A light went on in Ruki's mind.  
  
'How could I not have thought of that?!'  
  
"Renamon!" she called into the winds and blizzard, then turned back to Hirokazu, "You better be right this time, visorhead."  
  
Hirokazu just chuckled and winked confidently.  
  
***  
  
A couple of kilometers away, on a rock formation in the desert, a tall, graceful yellow fox Digimon leapt up onto her hind legs, crouching and looking in all directions, her light blue eyes alert and her long, white- tipped ears quivering with surprise at the call that had reached her heart.  
  
"Ruki?! Where are you?" Renamon stood up and lifted her head.  
  
***  
  
"Renamon. I'm here, on the mountain!" Ruki called into the rapidly darkening sky.  
  
"Do you think Renamon will come?" Juri asked anxiously.  
  
"Don't worry," Ruki smiled reassuringly at her, "Renamon 'always' comes."  
  
Jenrya, hearing her pronounce these words and seeing her smile, allowed himself a small, proud smile. Ruki had come a long way from the frosty, introverted Digimon Queen he and Takato had managed, with much difficulty, to befriend. She had learned to trust her Digimon utterly. That was quite an accomplishment for her. It had taken Jenrya and Takato quite a while to win her trust, let alone her friendship.  
  
'She's finally opening up to us,' Jenrya thought, 'Maybe someday. she can learn to trust us that much too.'  
  
He looked thoughtfully at Ruki, whose fierce violet eyes were wide with anticipation.  
  
'Renamon 'will' come,' Ruki thought with conviction, 'I know she will.'  
  
***  
  
Renamon, meanwhile, was speeding towards the snow-capped mountain in the distance, bounding as far with each step as her long, powerful hind legs would take her. On the way, she met Guilmon and Terriermon, who were playing tickle together.  
  
"Come!" she called to them, "Ruki is here, and I believe the others are here as well!"  
  
Guilmon and Terriermon looked up in shock.  
  
"Yay! Yay! Takatomon's back!" Guilmon leapt to his feet, bowling Terriermon over.  
  
"Momentie!" Terriermon cried, looking anything but easy himself, "Lead the way, Renamon!"  
  
The three Digimon sped off to find their partners.  
  
***  
  
The Tamers huddled together, trying to warm each other and themselves. Juri was cushioned up between Takato and Ryou, as always, and Ruki was between Jenrya and Hirokazu. Kenta was squeezed in between Ryou and Jenrya.  
  
"D-don't worry, guys, I'm sure Renamon will be here soon," Takato whispered, his teeth chattering.  
  
But he was losing hope as his body lost feeling and heat and became almost entirely numb.  
  
'Man, I'm freezing. What's taking her so long?!' he wondered unreasonably.  
  
"Yeah, and she'll bring the others with her," Ruki added confidently.  
  
The other Tamers' faces brightened slightly at this, then became somber again as another icy gale nearly swept them apart.  
  
"Stay together!" Takato yelled over the blizzard's roar.  
  
The children huddled tighter together. Juri felt a single tear slide down her cheek, to be quickly frozen. She put her arms around her legs and hugged herself tightly, wondering how they would ever come out of this alive.  
  
***  
  
Meanwhile, the three Digimon were going as fast as they could. Terriermon was flying, Guilmon was running, and Renamon was doing something between jumping and flying.  
  
"Why do you think they've come back?" Terriermon asked Renamon as he flew a bit ahead of her.  
  
"I don't know, but I think they're in trouble," Renamon replied.  
  
'Hold on, Ruki!' she thought, unconsciously speeding up, 'I'm coming!'  
  
***  
  
Just then, they came upon Guardromon.  
  
"Guardromon, Ruki is here!" Renamon called to him, "And I believe the others are as well!"  
  
Guardromon's head snapped up in surprise.  
  
"Really?" he said, "That is excellent news indeed!"  
  
"Hey, could you take us there? Your rockets might come in useful," Terriermon alighted on Guardromon's shoulder.  
  
"My pleasure!"  
  
Guardromon jumped up at once, gathered up Renamon and Guilmon, and fired up the rockets on his back. In his wild state of excitement, the brown machine Digimon put an unusual amount of energy into the effort.  
  
"WHOOOOAAA!!!!!!!!" the Digimon yelled as they blasted through the air.  
  
"Look out!" Renamon yelled just in time to prevent Guardromon from splattering them all across a stone formation.  
  
"Sheesh, don't you know how to drive?!" Terriermon was covering his eyes with his ears.  
  
"I think I'm gonna get airsick," Guilmon gagged.  
  
***  
  
The Tamers had all worked together to dig a shallow hole in the side of a snow drift and had spread the blanket there. They huddled together, trying to stay awake.  
  
Kenta was dropping off when Jenrya pinched him, hard.  
  
"Ouch! What'd you do that for, Jenrya-san?!" Kenta asked in consternation, massaging his smarting arm.  
  
"If you fall asleep in these conditions, you might never wake up again!" Jenrya replied over the fierce howling of the winds.  
  
"This storm doesn't seem about to end anytime soon," Takato remarked, "I hope the Digimon get here before we freeze to death or all fall asleep."  
  
"Renamon!" Ruki called out into the darkness.  
  
***  
  
An unimaginable distance away, deep in the darkest parts of the Digital World, where night knew no end, and evil hung thick in the air, a great, grotesquely twisted midnight-colored castle stood like an arrow pointing towards the sky on a small island in the middle of an eerily still, bottomless lake.  
  
In a small room in a tower of this evil-filled place, some one laughed, a laugh that would have sent cold shivers through anyone who heard it, it was so icy, flat, devoid of all feeling.  
  
"Yes, children. Call for your Digimon. When the time comes, you will hand them to me. whether you want to or not," the shadowy creature was bent over a small, ornate crystal oval mirror.  
  
The voice was horrible, like nails on a blackboard. And the mysterious figure threw what might have been his head back and laughed the wild laugh of a maniac, as screechy as his voice. The castle trembled in its foundations.  
  
***  
  
Up on the mountain, the Tamers were startled and overjoyed to see a small speck in the distance, growing bigger and bigger. When it was close enough for them to see what it was, they all shouted and waved their arms.  
  
"Guardromon!" Hirokazu called out.  
  
Wild in his joy at seeing his partner again, he grabbed Juri and planted an impulsive kiss on her cheek. Juri gasped, blushed and giggled, all her sadness forgotten.  
  
"Renamon!" Ruki cried, running out on his heels.  
  
"Guilmon!" Takato ran out of the shelter, grabbing Juri by the hands and dancing around with her.  
  
"Terriermon!" Jenrya was not far behind.  
  
'He' hugged Ruki in his excitement, not realizing who it was because of the blizzard. Ruki didn't mind at all, because she was so full of joy she wouldn't have cared if she'd been hugged by a three-headed dog right then. She actually went so far as to hug Jenrya back, leaving him speechless with amazement when he realized just who he had hugged.  
  
Ruki then turned and actually gave Hirokazu a hug.  
  
"Thanks!" she told him, leaving 'him' speechless as well, which was quite an extraordinary feat.  
  
***  
  
Guardromon landed with a flourish, throwing up a sheet of snow that completely buried everybody. Laughing and hugging their partners, the Tamers dug their way out and reassembled on top of the snow pile. Kenta had thoughtfully recovered the blanket.  
  
"C'mon, everyone!" Hirokazu yelled, straddled on Guardromon.  
  
Everyone climbed onto Guardromon, who sagged under the weight but held. Firing up his rockets, Guardromon lifted off, raising another wave of snow that landed on the Tamers and himself.  
  
***  
  
The Tamers landed in a spot in the desert, and decided to spend the night in the cave where Guilmon and Terriermon had been residing together.  
  
"Well, that was a close one," Jenrya said to Takato when they were all settled around a little campfire that night.  
  
"Yeah," Takato shook his head, "Let's not ever do that again."  
  
"Uh-huh," Jenrya nodded and laughed.  
  
"So tomorrow, Tamers, we'll set out in search of the rest of the Digimon," Takato told everyone, "Is everyone with me?"  
  
Juri felt extremely depressed at these words, but tried to hide it. She didn't want to ruin the moment for everyone else. Ryou, across from her, his blue eyes startling in his tanned face, fixed her with a searching gaze that made her want to squirm.  
  
"Yeah!" Kenta raised a fist.  
  
Ryou nodded, and the rest manifested their agreement, too, in various, and occasionally rather astonishing ways. Hirokazu cartwheeled around the cave and nearly fell in the fire, making Ruki laugh.  
  
***  
  
"Hey, Hiro," Kenta pulled his best friend away from the campfire as they all prepared to go to bed, "She totally digs you, man."  
  
Hirokazu looked confused, "Who?"  
  
Kenta threw up his hands in exasperation at his spiky-haired friend's cluelessness, "Ruki-san, of course!"  
  
"Huh?!" Hirokazu shook his head violently, looking bewildered, "No way!"  
  
"Way," Kenta nodded, "She always acts different around you. Not very different, but the difference is there. She's less, well, impatient with you - at Hirokazu's disbelieving look the spectacled boy added - compared to me, for example. She laughs when you do something that if I did it she'd probably yell at me for being stupid. And sometimes she even blushes around you. You mean you haven't noticed?!"  
  
Hirokazu shook his head, "No. - Kenta stared at him in disbelief - What about it? Ruki's way cool, but why would she like a bozo like me, anyway?"  
  
"Search me," Kenta replied, "But she likes you, you mark my words, oh yeah, she's totally into you, buddy."  
  
With that the green-haired boy turned and left, leaving Hirokazu confused and full of questions that he never thought he'd be asking himself.  
  
'Ruki- likes me?! That's impossible! Is it? Since when has Kenta been the master at reading people, anyway? He'd probably mistake angry red for a blush. Sheesh. Great. Thanks a lot, pal. Now I can't get this stupid idea outta my head. It's just totally crazy! I don't like Ruki, I mean, she's a totally awesome gal sometimes, but she's just not my type, ya know? Wait, why am I talking to myself? Argh! Enough of this, I wasn't cut out for intensive soul-searching sessions.'  
  
Resolutely Hirokazu began to scan the cave in order to pick out a spot to curl up in and within moments he was tucked snugly into a small space at the back of the cave between two stalagmites that were warm, somehow.  
  
'Probably an underground hot spring or somethin'...' was his last thought before he drifted off.  
  
***  
  
'I wonder how long it'll take to find the other Digimon,' Takato thought that night as he tried to sleep with Guilmon snoring beside him, 'And what'll we do when we find them? Where would we search for the threat, whatever it is? If there 'is' a threat. Ah, well. One thing at a time.'  
  
He turned over and pulled his blanket over his head to muffle the sound of Guilmon's contented snoring.  
  
***  
  
'I wonder.' Jenrya was lying awake, too, 'What could be happening? That Darkblossomon didn't just 'happen' to appear and create a portal for us. I hope, whatever it is, it won't be like the D-Reaper.'  
  
* Flashback *  
  
Their fight with the D-Reaper had transpired in the deep canyons in the layer of the Digimon sovereigns. The D-Reaper was endangering the whole Digital World, and then it had captured Juri and thus had gained the power to emerge in the real world as well.  
  
The Tamers had had to go after it in the Ark that Jenrya's father and his team of Monster Makers had sent them. There was a lengthy battle in the real world, in which the Tamers had lost ground little by little because the D-Reaper kept coming back in different and more powerful forms each time they destroyed one of its agents.  
  
Finally Jenrya, Ryou and their respective partners had returned to the Digital World in order to try to find some way to defeat the less advanced form of D-Reaper, since according to the theory of the Monster Makers, a team of scientists who'd originally created Digimon, if they destroyed the D-Reaper in the Digital World, they'd destroy the one in the real world as well, since the two were linked by a single kernel of consciousness.  
  
After what had seemed to be a hopeless fight alongside the sovereigns and their allies, it had only been the sacrifice of Cyberdramon that had freed an ancient force that had utterly destroyed the enemy, and allowed the Tamers in the real world to free Juri from the Kernel Sphere of the D- Reaper. Cyberdramon had gone back to his Digiegg, which had disappeared and to this day had not been found.  
  
* Flashback ends*  
  
Jenrya closed his eyes, turned over, and tried to sleep. When he didn't manage that, he walked outside and sat down on a boulder, looking up at the sky of the Digital World, at the ever changing greenish digital layer and the floating data islands, and the bright pink data streams traveling to and fro.  
  
'It's so beautiful,' he thought, 'But at the same time. So dangerous.'  
  
Just then he heard soft footsteps behind him. He turned around and saw Ruki standing there, her hair loose and swaying softly around her shoulders. She sat down beside him.  
  
"Couldn't sleep either?" Jenrya commented.  
  
"Uh-uh," Ruki replied, looking up at the sky, "How could I? It's like. It's been so long since I last saw Renamon, and now, well, she's back. Or I'm back. Either way, I just."  
  
She stuttered to a halt, then sighed and shook her head, unable to find the words. But Jenrya understood. Ruki didn't want to lose a single second reunited with her partner, for fear that it might all be, well, not real. He himself felt much the same way. He nodded, his kind gray eyes looking deep into her beautiful clear ones, showing her he understood.  
  
"It's so quiet here, huh," he remarked, his voice barely more than a whisper.  
  
"Yeah," Ruki laughed softly, dropping her eyes, "Not like the city."  
  
Jenrya looked at her slender profile against the luminous skies of the Digital World and smiled.  
  
"It's beautiful, isn't it," he murmured, turning his thoughtful dark eyes to the heavens.  
  
"Yes," Ruki said quietly, "I never knew data could be like that."  
  
"Well, it's never too late to learn," Jenrya replied.  
  
Ruki smiled slightly at that.  
  
"I suppose you're right, Jen," she looked up at all those glows with a strange sadness and wistfulness that Jenrya glimpsed, for just a moment, before she turned away.  
  
"It's never too late." he heard her murmur very, very softly to herself.  
  
They lapsed into silence, sitting together admiring the skies of this strange and wonderful world.  
  
***  
  
Jenrya finally broke the silence, "Why do you think we've been called to the Digital World again?"  
  
Ruki turned to stare at him.  
  
"Called?" she asked.  
  
"Yeah," Jenrya replied, not looking at her, "I mean, that Darkblossomon didn't just 'happen' to open up a portal in front of us."  
  
"I guess you're right," Ruki said hesitantly, "I dunno. I guess we'll find out soon."  
  
Jenrya nodded. That was what he was afraid of.  
  
***  
  
~ So how was the third part of this fanfic? I'm afraid I might be slipping with the personalities and stuff. Gimme comments or reviews, please, oh and I know Ryou is still out of character, I promise I'll soothe the nerves of all the Ryou fans out there as soon as I can. Sorry! ^^ ~ 


	4. The Castle of Doom

~ Well, here's Chapter 4 of my Tamers fanfic. I hope you enjoy it! And please, Ryou fans and those of you who watched past Episode 25, DON'T flame me for making Ryou out of character. It's part of the story. In fact. * Evil smile * You might even be able to figure out just how it's a part of the story if you read this chapter carefully enough. Enough said, now on with the show! Just R, E&R!!! ~  
  
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The Shadow Realms: Part IV - The Castle of Doom  
  
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The next morning, all the Tamers awoke refreshed and ready for whatever the day threw at them. It was as if they'd never spent those cold, terrified hours among the snow drifts, at the mercy of the fierce blizzard, fearing that they would never, ever get out of there alive.  
  
Takato was one of the first to emerge from the cave. He reveled in the warmth as the bright, cheery sunshine touched him and erased the last vestiges of yesterday's snowy terrors.  
  
'Ah, it feels good to be in the sun again,' he thought contentedly, settling down on a rock to sit in the sun for awhile, 'Sure is a beautiful morning. Not that it wasn't a good night, even with Guilmon's snoring.'  
  
He chuckled. That was one habit his partner had 'never' seemed to be able to break, not even under threat of suspension of peanut butter.  
  
Takato sighed to himself, 'I wonder how Okaa-san and Otou-san are taking my disappearing again. They're probably really worried. I hope we'll be able to go home soon.'  
  
He looked back at the cave, 'I guess I'll just let them all sleep in for a while.'  
  
***  
  
He was joined, shortly, by all of the Tamers save Kenta and Jenrya, who came out while they were all washing up at a small pond nearby.  
  
"Any luck on finding breakfast?" Jenrya asked Takato, rubbing his eyes and looking comically half-asleep, though not nearly as funny as Kenta, of whom half the hair was sticking straight up.  
  
Terriermon and the other Digimon came out on their heels, and Terriermon took it as his personal task to ensure that Kenta's hair was put in order, which meant riding on the unfortunate boy's head for the rest of the morning.  
  
"You guys, get this oversized bunny off of me! He's strangling me with his ears!" Kenta cried as the others fell over laughing.  
  
***  
  
"Well, back to the subject, Takato, breakfast?" Ruki turned to the person in question.  
  
Takato shrugged, looking sheepish. He mumbled something incoherent.  
  
"What? What were you saying, Takato-kun?" Juri prodded.  
  
"Well, we were in such a hurry to get to the portal. None of us packed any supplies," Takato said, grabbing his head in both hands in his distress.  
  
"WHAT?! You're telling me, gogglehead, that we're out here without food, water or anything else except a useless blanket?!" Ruki exclaimed in disbelief, her voice unconsciously rising.  
  
"That's enough," Jenrya said firmly, stepping between the two, "We have enough troubles as it is. We don't need a fight added to them."  
  
Both Tamers glared at each other, then turned their backs silently but vehemently. Jenrya sighed.  
  
'Why can't we get along?' he wondered unhappily, 'We need to work together to survive here.'  
  
"Don't worry about breakfast, we'll forage," Renamon announced as the other Digimon nodded.  
  
***  
  
As the morning wore on, the Digimon helped forage in order to provide a meager breakfast of berries, water, and some cookie pieces found in Kenta's pocket.  
  
"Kenta, are you sure this cookie isn't moldy?" Hirokazu whined, making a face as he bit into his tiny piece, "It tastes like your Mom's broccoli tarts, Takato."  
  
"Quit complaining, Hirokazu," Ruki snapped as she popped a sour berry into her mouth, "We're lucky we found anything to eat at all."  
  
"What's this? The Digimon Queen giving lectures?!" Hirokazu pretended to be shocked, ignoring Ruki's furious glare.  
  
***  
  
Just before noon, the Tamers set out, with Guilmon and Renamon scouting ahead, trying to catch the scent of the other Digimon. Guardromon brought up the rear, and Terriermon was still atop Kenta's head despite his protests and Jenrya's wheedling.  
  
"Terriermon, I think his hair is quite flat enough now," Jenrya said, finally losing his temper just a little and pulling Terriermon off of Kenta by the ear.  
  
"Ow ouch ooch! Momentai, Jen, that hurt!" Terriermon squealed, squirming and accidentally smacking Ruki with his free ear.  
  
She immediately grabbed that ear and lowered her voice menacingly.  
  
"If you ever lay an ear on me again, little rabbit." she hissed into Terriermon's ear.  
  
"What about a paw?" Terriermon had the impudence to ask.  
  
Ruki swatted him away disgustedly as Jenrya, Takato and Hirokazu chuckled.  
  
***  
  
Hirokazu was stuck walking beside Ryou. Even now, he could feel the barely suppressed rage emanating from the other boy. Hirokazu noticed that Ryou's eyes spent more time on Juri than on what was in front of him.  
  
'And that might be put to use.' he thought with a mischievous grin.  
  
Deliberately, he nudged a little boulder in front of Ryou, who, as planned, tripped and fell on Kenta, who let out a muffled yelp and grabbed Guilmon by the foot in his panic, resulting in all three of them falling down on top of each other.  
  
***  
  
"Behold!" Hirokazu made a dramatic gesture towards the resulting pile, "The Eighth Wonder of the World, the Pile of Data!"  
  
" 'Very' funny, Hirokazu, but aren't there already supposed to be eight wonders of the world?" Ruki replied sarcastically, trying to hide a smile as she watched Ryou struggling to get out from under Kenta, his face in the dirt.  
  
'Serves him right, the smug thing,' she thought with satisfaction.  
  
"Uh, well, no history books hanging around, so I presume this is the eighth," Hirokazu retorted.  
  
"Did you just use a big word, Hirokazu?" Rika shot back.  
  
"Can it, Ruki!"  
  
"Hey, c'mon, you guys, disentangle yourselves, we haven't got all day!" Takato said impatiently, cutting short their bickering.  
  
Grumbling, Ryou, Kenta and Guilmon managed to sort themselves out and they were about to go on their way again when Ryou strode over and grabbed Hirokazu by the collar.  
  
"I know what you did, little toothpick, and this is what you get for it," Ryou hissed as he raised a fist.  
  
"Hey, take it easy, chumley, I didn't do nothin'!" Hirokazu protested, twisting his way free before Ryou could punch him.  
  
"Hey, you guys, stop it!" Juri intervened, "This is no time to fight. Do you want to find the other Digimon or not?"  
  
Both of the boys stared at her, then Ryou reluctantly turned away and Hirokazu nodded. Soon, they were finally able to get going again.  
  
***  
  
"Boy, Katou-san sure has a lot of influence over that Ryou guy," Jenrya said quietly to Ruki as they continued to scour the desert wasteland.  
  
"Uh-huh," Ruki agreed, "And that could be a good thing and a bad thing."  
  
"Yeah, good thing is she has influence over him that none of us have, and bad thing is he keeps eyeing Takato like he's a bug, or something," Jenrya replied, chuckling.  
  
Ruki nodded, with a slight smile lighting up her features. Just then, Takato let out a shout.  
  
***  
  
"Hey, guys, look!" he waved at them, then pointed, "Do you see what I see?!"  
  
"If you mean your big ugly face as a mirage, sure, we see, though we'd rather not," Hirokazu joked.  
  
There was a great stone castle in the distance, and it looked quite solid.  
  
"This better not be another rock formation," Ruki said quietly.  
  
"Don't worry, I know what it is," Renamon replied, craning her head to get a better look.  
  
"You do?" Rika looked up at her Digimon in surprise.  
  
"Yes," Renamon lowered her head and met her partner's gaze, "It's an ancient castle within which the Digital Ruler of this desert lived, once. You might be able to find some interesting things in it."  
  
She wouldn't say anything more, and neither Terriermon nor Guilmon knew much about the castle, except that they were both certain it was haunted.  
  
"Well, looks like the only way to find out what this castle is like is to go," Jenrya remarked.  
  
Just then Juri gasped.  
  
"What is it, Katou-san?" Takato turned around in surprise.  
  
Juri was looking at her buzzing D-Ark with an expression of shock.  
  
"I- I think my D-Ark's indicating that Leomon's in there!" she said breathlessly.  
  
"But he can't be," Ruki shook her head with conviction, "He was absorbed by Beelzebumon. He can't be back."  
  
"Well, looks like the only way to know for sure is to go see," Takato said.  
  
"It could be a trap..." Jenrya said slowly, running his hand through his hair and looking very confused.  
  
But Takato couldn't resist the hopeful look on Juri's face.  
  
"Well, only way to know is to go!" Takato pumped his fist into the air.  
  
"Yeah!" the rest cheered, though all had misgivings.  
  
None of them saw what Ryou saw: a strange, very thin dark halo surrounding Juri's D-Ark. Ryou stared at it for a moment, then smiled.  
  
'It is done,' he thought with satisfaction.  
  
And so they set off for the strange castle.  
  
***  
  
In his chamber, the mysterious stranger chuckled as he watched the Tamers making unsuspectingly right for his trap.  
  
'Good work, my little relay station,' he thought, then snapped his fingers.  
  
"Yes, my lord?" a bat-like wispy creature appeared at his side and spoke in a shrill, grating voice.  
  
"Set up the little trap I conceived at the old Dark Castle," the Prince of Darkness replied, "I want to give these children a little surprise welcome."  
  
A thin-lipped smile spread over his sallow features, which were shadowed but not hidden.  
  
"As you wish, Dark One," the bat creature bowed its head obediently and vanished.  
  
***  
  
Then the Prince turned to someone shackled to the wall behind him, in the corner, who was watching his every move.  
  
"Well, my distinguished 'guest'," he chuckled at the irony, "What do you think of my 'wonderful' little plan?"  
  
"You're scum, Shadowmagemon, nothing but a coward!" the prisoner spat out, refusing to look at his captor.  
  
"My, my, aren't we grouchy today," the Prince of Darkness said with feigned pleasantness, "You're going to appreciate my powers all the more, pathetic human, when you see what I have in store for your little comrades."  
  
With a chuckle, he turned back to his mirror.  
  
***  
  
Meanwhile, the Tamers had reached the outskirts of the castle, which was protected by a deep moat of which the bottom could not be seen. The castle itself stood on what could only be described as the top of a small, or perhaps, not so small mountain. The children halted at the edge of the moat, dismayed.  
  
"How are we ever gonna get across that thing?" Takato wondered aloud.  
  
"Can you carry us across?" Ruki queried Guardromon anxiously.  
  
"I don't know," Guardromon replied, "I'm afraid of heights, you know."  
  
"You're 'what'?!"  
  
"Just kidding!"  
  
"Aaaauugh!" Ruki crossed her arms, scowling fiercely, "I think you're having a bad influence on him, Hirokazu."  
  
"My pleasure," the spiky-haired boy replied, grinning.  
  
Ruki rolled her eyes and turned her back on the pair of them.  
  
"I think it's possible," Jenrya remarked, "But for safety, he should ferry us across one at a time."  
  
"Then let's do it!" Takato yelled.  
  
***  
  
Guardromon ferried the Tamers and their Digimon one by one across the abyss- like moat, with the obvious exception of Jenrya, on whose shoulder Terriermon rode, clinging tightly.  
  
"Well, we made it," Takato sighed in relief when everyone was across, "Whew! Guardromon, we owe you one."  
  
"Don't mention it," Guardromon replied, clasping his mechanical hands behind his squarish brown head.  
  
"Hey, what are we waiting for?! Let's get in there!" Hirokazu started to move away when Ruki's voice, dripping sarcasm, halted him.  
  
"Do you at least know where the entrance is?" she demanded.  
  
"Uh, no," Hirokazu admitted sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head.  
  
With that, the rest fell over.  
  
***  
  
"Well it's a good thing we have Renamon with us," Jenrya noted as Renamon led them to a tiny door hidden by a jagged rock somewhere up on a very narrow ledge that jutted out over a very steep precipice.  
  
"Yeah, without her, I think we could still be circling the castle a couple of weeks from now looking for the entrance," Takato added.  
  
Ryou said nothing, but he stopped the others as they were about to open the little oak door.  
  
"Renamon, have you ever been inside the castle?" he asked stiffly.  
  
"Not through this door," Renamon admitted.  
  
Ryou didn't reply, but picked up a rock, hefted it, and threw it at the door. The moment it hit, it disintegrated.  
  
"I thought so," he turned back to the others, who were speechless, "It's got a special shield. It's fairly easy to break."  
  
He lapsed into silence, looking at the Digimon expectantly.  
  
"Oh, right," Jenrya caught on, "Guys, blast the door in."  
  
Ryou's lips twitched and he feigned a cough to hide his amusement.  
  
'Not exactly what I had in mind,' he thought.  
  
Guilmon shattered the door and the shield, which went up in a flash of red, with his Fireball attack, and they all piled in, for it was getting cold outside, standing on the cliff.  
  
***  
  
As they made their way through the dark, damp stone hallways, trying their best not to make noise, their steps resonated on the stone and gave the whole place an eerie feeling.  
  
"Guys, it's. kinda creepy in here, isn't it?" Takato remarked as quietly as he could.  
  
"Takatomon, I'm scared," Guilmon whined loudly, trying to cling to his Tamer and walk at the same time.  
  
"Ouch, Guilmon, you're crushing me!" Takato yelped.  
  
"Oh, brother, whatever is in this castle probably knows we're here by now, what with the racket you two are making," was Ruki's annoyed comment.  
  
"Well, you have to admit, Ruki, it's not exactly welcoming," Jenrya reprimanded her.  
  
Ruki glared at him but didn't make any further comments. Juri was leading the way with her D-Ark compass, and soon they came to a turning, and emerged in another hallway, this time with doors on each side.  
  
***  
  
"Guys, we're getting closer, I think," Juri's voice floated back to the rest, "I- Aaaaah!"  
  
Her scream was abruptly cut short and silence reigned.  
  
"Katou-san? Katou-san!" Takato rushed forward, with Ryo on his heels.  
  
The rest followed, and they all scanned wildly in all directions.  
  
"Katou-san! Juri, where are you? Katou-san!" their futile cries filled the air.  
  
"JUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Guardromon's extremely loud voice thundered and reverberated about the passage, making everyone wince.  
  
"Guys, she's gone," Takato said tightly, looking very agitated and upset, "Did any of you see what happened?"  
  
In the little group, all the heads shook from side to side in a general "No".  
  
Ryou's sky-blue eyes flickered everywhere. He caught a flash of movement above them.  
  
"Look out!" he yelled.  
  
Everyone ducked, and something just missed them with a swish of air that was generally heard.  
  
***  
  
"Whew! That was a close one," Jenrya said as everyone unbent themselves.  
  
Suddenly Ruki let out a cry of terror. Something cold had her by the waist and was dragging her away from the others.  
  
"Jen! Do something!" she yelled to the boy in front of her, struggling against her invisible captor.  
  
But whatever it was, it had a grip of iron.  
  
"Ruki! Hold on!" Jenrya had whipped around at her cry and grabbed her by the ankle and, with Terriermon's help, he began a tug of war with whatever was trying to take Ruki.  
  
Guilmon tried his Fireball, to no effect.  
  
'I can't let it take her! If anything happens to her.' Jenrya didn't dare complete the thought, and threw his entire being into wrestling the girl away from his adversary.  
  
Unfortunately, the floor chose that moment to disappear from beneath him, and he lost his grip on Ruki's ankle in his shock. He, the remaining Tamers and their Digimon tumbled into darkness.  
  
***  
  
"No!" Ruki let out a cry of horror when she saw a hole open up beneath Jenrya and the others, and watched the ground swallow them up in its gaping darkness.  
  
The last thing she saw was Jenrya's wide, anxious gray eyes, fastened almost desperately on her own. Then she felt a blow on the back of her head, and everything faded into complete blackness.  
  
***  
  
"Everything is going as according to plan," the Dark Prince bared his teeth in a wolfish, satisfied smile as he watched the Tamers' confusion as he snatched two of them from their midst, "With the girls as hostages, the boys will eventually follow. Even my rebellious little relay station. Serves him right for falling for that slip of a girl. Tsk, tsk, tsk, humans. Always in season."  
  
His smile grew even wider as he heard sounds of struggling from behind him. He turned, and laughed at his prisoner, who was pulling desperately on his chains, eyes locked on the horrible vision in the mirror.  
  
"Yes, very sad, is it not, to see your friends in such a predicament?" he licked his lips and chuckled, "Not to worry, my friend, there is plenty more to come."  
  
With that he threw back his head and laughed, laughed at the boy who was scraping his wrists bloody trying to shatter the chains that bound him.  
  
***  
  
"Uuuunh." Takato groaned as he sat up and looked around.  
  
There was nothing to see. Only darkness. Wait. was that the light of a torch?  
  
'Where am I?' he wondered, as he got to his feet and began to walk towards the faint, flickering glow.  
  
"Guilmon?"  
  
A dark shape rose in the shadows.  
  
"Takatomon, it's dark, I can't see anything."  
  
"Guilmon!" Takato hurried towards his friend, relieved.  
  
He trod on something soft and a yelp made him jump a foot in the air.  
  
"Who is it?" he whispered.  
  
A dark form sat up at his feet.  
  
"Takato, you dimwit, you almost broke my wrist, ya happy?!" Hirokazu glared up at his friend for a moment.  
  
He looked quite unlike his usual confident self, covered in dirt, scrapes and without his visor.  
  
He gave up trying to find it, and looked around, "What happened?"  
  
Just then a third form sat up beside them, startling them both.  
  
"A hole opened up in the ground, that's what happened," Jenrya's voice came, weak and raspy.  
  
"Is everyone here?" Takato queried the tired-looking boy anxiously.  
  
"I dunno, I just woke up," Jenrya replied, "But we're minus Katou-san and Ruki."  
  
"What happened to Ruki?" Takato asked.  
  
"Something grabbed her," Jenrya sounded very upset, "It was all my fault! She was right behind me. I should have been watching her back."  
  
He buried his face in his knees.  
  
"Look, Jen, stop blaming yourself, we need to do something," Takato took Jenrya by the shoulders and shook him, hard.  
  
"Momentai, Takato, Momentai," they all jumped, and Terriermon alighted on Jenrya's shoulder.  
  
"Terriermon! You're all right! I was worried about you, pal," Jenrya said in relief, stroking Terriermon's ear.  
  
"Well, I'm here now," Terriermon replied, looking much the worse for the wear, with one of his ears all crumpled and tattered, "And I think I broke my ear. Where's Guilmon?"  
  
"Over here!" something moved back and forth behind Takato, making them all jump again, until they realized it was just Guilmon waving.  
  
"What about Renamon?" Jenrya looked up, startled.  
  
"Well, where is she?" Takato persisted.  
  
"Now that you mention it, I haven't seen or heard her since we entered the castle!" the blue-haired boy exclaimed, bewildered.  
  
"There's definitely something weird going on here," Takato looked scared.  
  
"Where're Kenta, and Ryou?" Hirokazu, who had not heard a word of the anxious conversation, piped up.  
  
***  
  
"We're here," Kenta and Ryou emerged in the faint, flickering light cast by the torch.  
  
Kenta was covered in bruises, and his glasses were crooked. As for Ryou, he was scratched up pretty bad, and he was limping.  
  
"Now that we're all here, let's check out that light," Takato announced.  
  
"Let's go," Jenrya agreed, giving Takato a side-glance that said, clearly, that they shouldn't alarm the others by telling them about Renamon's disappearance.  
  
Takato nodded, then began leading them towards the glow.  
  
"Guys, be careful," Ryou said warningly, following just behind Takato.  
  
"Where's Guardromon?" Hirokazu looked around wildly for his partner, then sighed in relief as a massive shape loomed up behind him.  
  
"You called?" Guardromon put a very scratched up metallic hand on his Tamer's shoulder.  
  
"Yeah, stay with us, buddy," Hirokazu replied with a rather forced grin before following the others towards the torchlight.  
  
***  
  
They rounded the corner, and there, chained to the stone wall, lay.  
  
"Leomon!" Takato gasped.  
  
The others, except for Ryou, hurried up to look. Leomon didn't stir.  
  
"I think he's hurt or something," Jenrya approached Leomon and examined him, "He's unconscious. I think he was captured and thrown in here."  
  
"Well, duh, Jenrya, but what are we gonna do about it?" Hirokazu snapped.  
  
"Momentai!" Terriermon shot back.  
  
"Takatomon, I'm scared," Guilmon whimpered, trying to hide behind his Tamer, "He doesn't smell good."  
  
"Who, Leomon?" Takato asked, confused.  
  
"We have to get out of here," Ryou burst out, sounding very nervous and taking everyone by surprise.  
  
Just then Leomon lifted his head, startling everyone again, and opened his eyes. They were a glowing blood red.  
  
"Uh, guys... I... don't think that's normal," Hirokazu said slowly as they all backed away.  
  
'This is definitely 'not' good,' Ryou thought as he slipped into the shadows, hoping their concealment would grant him protection.  
  
Leomon got to his feet, knocking Jenrya over, and, with a roar, he attacked with swift and deadly accuracy.  
  
***  
  
~ I've noticed that I haven't left a single cliffhanger so far, so I decided to leave this chapter at one! Hehe, aren't I evil? -) So who did Leomon attack? Who is this Dark Prince? And who is his prisoner? Hope you liked it! Review, please! ~ 


	5. Revelations

~I'm SO sorry, I know I left that cliffhanger dangling for WAAAAY too long, but as a result, I've managed to make changes to all the previous chapters to fit in with the TV show so far, as much as I can manage. A bit more stuff, better re-read! I've also changed the title, I think it's a tad better than the previous one. And this chapter is very important, many things happen here. So anyway, dear readers, R, E & R!!!~  
  
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The Shadow Realms: Part V - Revelations  
  
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"Gaaah!" Kenta scrambled for shelter as Leomon leaped straight for him, and Takato jumped out of the way and nearly bowled Guilmon over.  
  
Next moment, before anyone had truly realized what was happening, Guardromon had placed himself between Leomon and Kenta and received the full force of Leomon's attack. Guardromon crashed to the ground.  
  
"Ouch."  
  
That snapped Hirokazu out of his state of paralyzed shock and he snatched his D-Ark from his belt.  
  
"Okay, that's it!" he produced a card, and, holding it vertically between the two forefingers of his right hand, which he raised up above his head, his right arm stretching towards his left, and with his brown-lined D-Ark in his left hand stretching over to the right side, below his waist, he brought the D-Ark diagonally upwards towards the left and the card diagonally downward towards the right so that the two met midway, and the card slid through the slot with a crackling explosion of the energy, "Card Slash! Seed of Swiftness!"  
  
Guardromon disappeared from the spot where he'd been lying and a moment later Leomon roared in pain as Guardromon crashed straight into him. He was thrown against the wall and his image began to fuzz.  
  
"We've almost got him, Guardromon!" Hirokazu yelled, "Okay, Card Slash! Boost Chip!"  
  
"Destruction Grenade!" Guardromon fired his queer little rockets with heads and clubs straight at Leomon.  
  
"No!" Jenrya cried from the ground.  
  
"Wait!" Takato yelled.  
  
But as the two projectiles reached Leomon and were about to hit him right in the chest, he suddenly blurred and a large hole appeared where his chest had been, so that Guardromon's attack hit the wall. The cloud of dust that was raised engulfed both Leomon and Jenrya.  
  
"WHAT?!" Hirokazu yelped.  
  
"Um, what just happened?" Takato wondered aloud.  
  
There was a sudden yell from Jenrya within the dust cloud, cut off by a gasp, and then silence.  
  
"Jen!" Takato called, but received no answer.  
  
"Uh-oh," Guilmon said nervously, his bat-like ears quivering.  
  
When the dust cleared, the Tamers saw that Leomon had pinned Jenrya against the wall with one large clawed fist, which was slowly strangling the blue- haired boy, and had raised the other to attack.  
  
"Jenrya!" Terriermon, Hirokazu, Kenta and Takato cried in unison.  
  
"Petit Twister!" Terriermon tried to free Jenrya with his tornado-like attack but was tossed aside.  
  
"Guilmon, let's go!" Takato was taking out his D-Ark when Hirokazu stopped him with a gesture.  
  
"He's 'mine', Takato."  
  
"Hirokazu!"  
  
"Just leave it to me, chumley."  
  
Hirokazu was about to slash another card when Ryou stepped out from the shadows, his blue eyes glinting in the flickering light from the torches.  
  
"That's not Leomon," he said matter-of-factly.  
  
"Uh, you lost me," Hirokazu muttered.  
  
"It may look like Leomon, but it's not," Ryou continued, "Here."  
  
He handed Hirokazu a card. Hirokazu glanced at it and stared.  
  
"Reveal?" he looked up at Ryou, who nodded.  
  
"Yeah, it'll show you that Digimon's true form."  
  
Hirokazu was skeptical, but just then Leomon roared out, "Fist of the Beast King!"  
  
Jenrya tried to shield his face with his arms as the Beast Man Digimon's attack went right for him.  
  
"No!" Terriermon leaped to protect his partner, but he could never have gotten there in time.  
  
"Fireball!" Guilmon's last minute action deflected the Adult's attack, which hit the wall beside Jenrya's head and knocked his head sideways so fast he nearly blacked out.  
  
"Come on, Hirokazu, it's worth a try," Takato yelled as Leomon bowled Guilmon over with a single attack and readied himself to attack Jenrya once more.  
  
"All right, here goes," Hirokazu slashed the card Ryou had given him, "Card Slash! Reveal!"  
  
Twin beams shot out from Guardromon's eyes and hit Leomon, and before their eyes the Digimon began to change, like an image reflected in water that has ripples in it. Slowly, Leomon transformed into a large, gelatinous red-eyed blob that shifted colors as it bobbed up and down in the firelight.  
  
"What in the world is 'that'?!" Hirokazu exclaimed, aghast.  
  
"Good question," Takato muttered.  
  
A circular surface appeared out of Hirokazu's D-Ark screen and he looked down at it, "Blobbermon, Adult level. It can turn into any Digimon, and can use any Digimon's attacks! Whoa! No wonder we thought it was Leomon!"  
  
Takato was frowning, "But if it wasn't Leomon, why did Katou-san's D-Ark act up?"  
  
" 'I' can answer that," Ryou spoke up, and everyone stared at him, "Later. Right now you have a Blobbermon to take care of. It's fairly easy to kill, but better do it quick, before it changes into something else!"  
  
Already the Blobbermon's image was beginning to shift again, its outlines blurring as it readied itself for transformation.  
  
"Oh, right!" Hirokazu turned to his Digimon, "Guardromon?"  
  
"No problem!" Guardromon fired his rockets, "Destruction Grenade!"  
  
But he wasn't the only one who attacked.  
  
"Fireball!"  
  
"Blazing Fire!"  
  
Hemmed in on all sides, the Blobbermon exploded into bits of data. Guardromon absorbed the data and Jenrya slid to the ground, looking dazed.  
  
"Jen!" Takato cried, and everyone except Ryou ran to Jenrya's side, Terriermon in the lead, "Are you all right?"  
  
Jenrya rubbed the back of his head, "Well, I've been better."  
  
"Don't 'ever' do that again, Jen," Terriermon advised his Tamer sternly.  
  
Jenrya laughed and Terriermon climbed onto his shoulder.  
  
Suddenly there was a loud metallic sort of crash, and all of them looked up.  
  
"Hey, weren't you going to explain something to us, Ryou?" Kenta asked, looking at the boy standing alone behind them, in the shadows.  
  
"What's that?" Takato pointed to a pile of dark shards at Ryou's feet, which dissolved as they watched.  
  
"Nothin'," Ryou muttered evasively.  
  
Suddenly all of their minds felt clearer than they had in quite a while, and Kenta spoke up again, "Come on, a promise is a promise."  
  
Ryou sighed and came to join them, sitting in the corner, "Oh, all right. But it's pretty crazy."  
  
"Whatever it is, I'm sure we've seen something crazier," Terriermon assured him.  
  
"He's got a point," Takato nodded.  
  
"Well, don't say I didn't warn you," Ryou muttered, "All right, first of all, you've got to know that..."  
  
***  
  
Takeshi Miki sighed as she unpacked her things and began to fill up her new room. Again.  
  
'How many times have we moved?' the dark-haired girl wondered, her bright green eyes wandering to the great window that opened up onto the street below.  
  
Shaking her head, which sent her short hair flying, Miki turned back to the box she was unpacking. She reached in and pulled out her class picture from last year. Tossing it aside, she continued to rummage around. Miki absolutely hated being the new girl all the time. But that was her life, basically. Always the new girl at school, the new girl on the block.  
  
'Damn it,' Miki thought with annoyance as she tossed aside a small brown book belonging to her dead father, 'Why couldn't Mother have been something, anything, 'besides' a singer/actress?!'  
  
Takeshi Rai was beautiful, glamorous and had starred in many famous cinematic productions. She was also a very popular singer who did many tours, and took her 15-year-old daughter with her.  
  
Miki didn't really mind moving so much 'that' much. Every time was a chance to start over, to meet new people, to see new places and experience new things. Miki snorted as she remembered the people who'd pitied her verbally about her situation.  
  
'As if 'they' knew anything about it,' she thought contemptuously, continuing to throw things about the room as she searched around in her box for something interesting to do.  
  
***  
  
Miki unearthed her Digimon card pocket and smiled down at it. Throughout her travels with her mother, her card pocket had always stayed with her, accumulating more and more cards as time went on. Miki had gained a rather notorious reputation for her card playing skills, but hadn't bothered to get into the league of the big competitions.  
  
Suddenly she espied something strangely shiny and blue amongst her cards. It slid out of the pocket and onto the floor.  
  
"What in the-?!" Miki picked up the blue card; it had a strange yellow and purple logo on it, like a D with a T-rex's head sticking out, which appeared and disappeared as she shifted the card's position in her fingers, "Where'd 'this' come from?"  
  
Miki had collected many, many cards during her lifetime, but she didn't remember ever having seen a card like this one. On a sudden impulse, she dug out her cardreader from within the cardboard box and slashed the card through it.  
  
"Wha-?!" she was astonished all over again when her cardreader suddenly glowed, and 'changed', with a strange 'BII-IP' sort of sound.  
  
When the glow faded, Miki found herself holding a strange sort of rectangular white device lined with turquoise, with bumps at the sides, and a slot through the bump on the right side, and in the front there was a circular screen with two rectangular buttons beneath it. On top there was a turquoise strap.  
  
"Okay," she said aloud to herself, "Now I've gone officially crazy."  
  
For a moment Miki just stared at the thing, and then a possibility, or rather an 'im'possibility, slid into her mind: 'Could I really be holding a real Digivice?'  
  
Before she had time to take this train of thought any further, the screen of the device began to glow, with a blinding light that filled Miki's vision. And suddenly she was in a different place, a very, very dark place where light did not, could not possibly exist, alone... or so she thought.  
  
"Miki..." Miki jumped at the sound of the soft female voice.  
  
"Wha-? Who are you? 'Where' are you? Where am 'I'?" she whispered into the infinite darkness.  
  
A soft glow appeared beside her, and grew steadily stronger, until Miki saw the outline of a large, slender four-legged creature with great ears standing beside her. It looked like a stag, but it couldn't be. No stag glowed like that, or talked.  
  
"I am Silvemon," the creature's features became clearer, and Miki found herself staring straight into a pair of great almond-shaped eyes, pale turquoise, glowing softly.  
  
The creature 'was' like a stag, with a soft gray furry body, and long legs, but paws instead of hooves, and instead of antlers it had a pair of great black wings in the place of ears. It was marked here and there by strange symbols. There was one like an upside down arc on its forehead, yellow, that seemed to gleam with a light all its own. It had a sort of silver, symbol-covered armor across its chest that thrust out two long, curving protrusions over its shoulders. Its face was long and ended in an elegant snout, almost like a shark's, with a small black nose. Its tail was long and thin like a whip, ending in a wicked curving scythe blade that gleamed with the light of a thousand diamonds and Miki knew, somehow, that it could cut through almost anything with a single swipe.  
  
Miki sat still, staring at the creature, awestruck by its beauty.  
  
"I am your partner, Miki," the creature whispered, its tail swaying back and forth over its back, its huge pale eyes blinking slowly.  
  
"Partner?" Miki breathed, not taking her eyes off the creature, almost afraid it might disappear if she did, and leave her alone in this dark place.  
  
"I am a Digimon," the creature smiled, showing wicked gleaming fangs, "And I have been waiting for the right Tamer. A strong Tamer, one who will not abandon me. That Tamer is you, Miki."  
  
"Digimon? Tamer?" Miki repeated, bewildered, "Y-you're a real D-Digimon?!"  
  
"Of course," Silvemon shook her head, "Can I drop the mysterious attitude now? Anyway, why do you think I came when you found the blue card? Now, tell me: are you willing to come with me, and perhaps leave your world behind forever? Or would you prefer to renounce your status as my Tamer, and stay in your world?"  
  
"Come with you to the Digital World?" Miki asked quietly.  
  
When Silvemon nodded, any doubts or hesitations Miki had had vanished completely, and a smile spread over her tanned face, "Of course! Of course I'll come with you!"  
  
"Your choice is final," Silvemon warned.  
  
"I'm coming," Miki said firmly.  
  
And with that, an almost blinding light appeared in front of them both, with strange red and green squares appearing and disappearing around the edges of it. Silvemon stepped forward and turned back.  
  
"Then let's go through this confounded portal already. I have no idea where we'll end up, but it will bring us where we are most needed."  
  
"Okay," Miki nodded, got up and walked to Silvemon's side, her card pocket still in one hand, and her Digivice in the other, "Let's go."  
  
Together they entered the portal, leaving behind the darkness.  
  
***  
  
Ruki awoke slowly, blinking as she rose sluggishly back to consciousness. And that bothered her. Why should she wake so slowly? And what was that throb in the back of her head that made her feel like she'd been hit by a hammer? Then she realized that someone was prodding her in the side.  
  
Ruki looked around wildly, trying to stand but finding that something was preventing her hands and feet from moving. Her D-Ark had disappeared from its place at her belt, as well as her cardpocket. She was in some sort of dark, dank stone chamber, and the only light came from somewhere in front of her, where a dark cloaked figure was hunched over something, muttering furiously.  
  
Juri was shackled to the wall beside her, apparently still unconscious, her long brown hair falling around her face and preventing Ruki from getting a good look at her. Ruki decided to try talking to her anyway.  
  
"Juri! Hey Juri!" she hissed.  
  
No response. Cursing, Ruki looked around once more, but her gold-streaked tawny hair was loose, falling in her face, tickling her cheeks and impairing her vision. And with her hands shackled, Ruki couldn't do anything about it except throw her head back, which made her back ache. Her fierce violet eyes, flickering about warily, came to rest on the last person she'd expected to see in such a place, at such a moment.  
  
"Ryou?!"  
  
***  
  
"Okay, okay," Hirokazu held up his hands, "Rewind! You're telling us that you're 'not' Ryou?!"  
  
"No, I'm not," the subject of his query responded tiredly, "My name's Kai. I was created from Ryou, but I am not him. I'm a copy, a clone."  
  
"You're what?!" Takato exclaimed.  
  
"I'm confused," Guardromon commented.  
  
"Aren't you always?" Hirokazu said exasperatedly.  
  
"Long ago, a part of the Digital World sank into darkness. No Digimon lived there but one: Shadowmagemon, Prince of Darkness, the vilest, most foul creature that ever lived. When Cyberdramon returned to his Digiegg, Shadowmagemon sent one of his servants to steal it for him," Ryou/Kai told them quietly, "And so, using Cyberdramon's Digiegg, he lured Ryou into his realm and captured him. After poisoning Cyberdramon's Digiegg with his evil, Shadowmagemon used Ryou's data to create me, and sent me to the real world with you guys. The thing you saw earlier on the ground was the remains of the Dark D-Ark he gave me. It allowed him to channel his power through me and to prevent you from remembering that Ryou wasn't in the least as, well, as nasty as I was. I only acted that way to prevent you from finding out about the Dark D-Ark and me. Essentially, I wanted to alienate you so that none of you would be inclined to examine me too closely. And it worked. The Dark D-Ark also allowed him to observe us. That's why I smashed it."  
  
" 'That's' why as soon as you smashed it, I remembered that you were supposed to be older than us!" Jenrya blurted.  
  
Kai nodded silently.  
  
"Why are you telling us this?" Takato asked suspiciously, "Aren't you on 'his' side?"  
  
"Never mind 'why'," Kai said abruptly, his face darkening, "I 'am' on your side, whether you choose to believe that or not. And Ryou is still in Shadowmagemon's clutches. I am the only one here who knows the exact location of his castle. So, as you see, you have no choice but to take my word for it, if you want to see Ryou, Ruki or Katou-san again."  
  
"He's got Ruki and Katou-san, too?" Jenrya cried.  
  
"Yes, and I think he also captured Renamon as we were entering the castle," Kai replied.  
  
"So what you're saying is," Takato said slowly, fiddling with his goggles, "The only way to rescue them is to break into Shadowmagemon's castle?"  
  
"Oh, dear," Guardromon mused, sitting down beside Hirokazu.  
  
"Oh, boy," Guilmon said unhappily a moment later.  
  
Kai nodded, "Unless they manage to escape on their own, which is highly unlikely, because Ryou hasn't been able to do it for the last four years."  
  
"Ryou-san's been in that goddawful place for the last four years?!" Hirokazu yelled.  
  
"Quiet!" Takato, Jenrya and Kai immediately hissed at him.  
  
"Poor Ryou-sama, it must've been really bad, stuck as a prisoner of a bad Digimon for four years," Kenta said.  
  
"Gee, ya think?" Hirokazu said sarcastically.  
  
"Guys, stop it, we need a plan," Jenrya muttered, placing his head in both hands and narrowing his eyes as he thought hard.  
  
***  
  
There was a moment of silence, suddenly broken when a white light brighter than the torches filled the small stone room. Its source was a strange sort of window in the air, and it was fringed with red and green cubes, appearing and disappearing. They all stared at it in shock.  
  
"What the-?!" Takato yelped.  
  
"Whoa," Terriermon muttered.  
  
"Is that a portal?!" Jenrya said incredulously.  
  
His question was answered when a moment later two forms materialized out of the light-emitting window onto the dusty straw-colored floor of the place, and the portal vanished behind them.  
  
A girl about their age sat in the dirt, her short, messy, slightly spiked chestnut hair kept out of her tanned face by a white bandana that was tied around her head, her bright green eyes blinking, slightly dazed, as she looked around. She wore a plain gray T-shirt and a pair of jeans without any belt. In her right hand she clutched a turquoise D-Ark and in her left a card pocket much like Rika's.  
  
Beside her stood a strange, gray four-legged creature with big turquoise eyes and black wings for ears, as well as ornate silver armor across its chest and a whip-like tail with a deadly curving scythe blade gleaming at the end.  
  
"What the hell?!" was Hirokazu's stunned comment.  
  
The girl jumped when she noticed the five boys and three Digimon staring at her from across the room. She dusted herself off as she got to her feet and quirked a smile.  
  
"Don't mind me, just dropping in."  
  
"Who're you?!" Takato asked, snapping out of his attitude of frozen astonishment.  
  
"Name's Miki, Takeshi Miki," the girl came over to them, the wondrous gray creature accompanying her and watching the boys and Digimon with wary eyes, "And this is Silvemon."  
  
She gestured to the creature beside her. Jenrya had taken out his D-Ark as Terriermon examined the gray creature from head to tail.  
  
"Silvemon, Child level Data type Digimon," he said finally, reading through the information his D-Ark was giving him, "Attacks are Lune Gale and Lightning Scythe."  
  
"That's a Digimon?!" Kenta stared with eyes the size of Ping-Pong balls.  
  
"What, you've never seen one before?" Silvemon retorted with a bite of impatience in her voice, "I'm Miki's partner, and we've come to help."  
  
"We have?" Miki stared at her partner.  
  
"You have?" Takato asked at exactly the same moment.  
  
Silvemon rolled her eyes, "Yes, now would you mind telling us why the Portal of Need brought us here?"  
  
"The Portal of Need?" Kai piped up suddenly, his blue eyes glinting, " 'That's' what you used to get here?"  
  
"Yes," Silvemon replied, "Now, are you boys going to tell us why you need our help?"  
  
"We don't," Hirokazu muttered, ignoring Silvemon's glare.  
  
The Tamers looked at each other, then at Kai.  
  
"You explain," Takato said.  
  
"Could someone tell me 'what the hell is going ON here'?!" Miki said crossly, sitting down beside Hirokazu.  
  
Kai sighed and leaned back against the wall, "I don't know why you're here, Takeshi-san, but we 'do' have a pretty big problem at the moment."  
  
"Call me Miki," the girl said with a smile.  
  
"Okay, then, Miki, y'see, there's this evil Digimon named Shadowmagemon..."  
  
And with that he began to explain the boys' predicament to Miki.  
  
***  
  
~Finally! Finished! Took me quite a while, too. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, the next one won't be out for a while. All right, so review and tell me what you think of the changes to the story and of this chapter. Are all you Ryou fans happier now? I certainly hope so. I also have a question for you readers: What color are Hirokazu's and Kenta's D-Arks? (It's D-Ark, not D-Power, chaps, get used to it) Whew! I'm gonna need a LOT of peanut butter after this one...~ 


	6. The Golden Tetrahedron

~And here it finally is, Part VI of The Shadow Realms! I hope I didn't keep everyone waiting too long, this was kinda hard to write. But anyway, R, E & R!!! (Have I explained the meaning of that yet? To those who don't know, it means Read, Enjoy & Review!)~  
  
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The Shadow Realms: Part VI - The Golden Tetrahedron  
  
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"Hey, Ruki-san," Ryou looked terrible; his spiky dull brown hair was falling in messy locks into his face, there were deep shadows under his sky- blue eyes, which were sad and listless, and he was so thin and pale he looked like a ghost, "Fancy seeing you here."  
  
His easy grin was still intact, though looking very worn. Ruki was too shocked by his appearance to reply. Ryou looked so much older, and much of him, especially his wrists and ankles, which were weighed down with heavy rusting metal shackles, was covered in blood.  
  
"R-Ryou!" Ruki finally managed to gasp out, "W-what happened to you?"  
  
Ryou's handsome face abruptly darkened; he suddenly looked almost as menacing as his partner Digimon Cyberdramon, "Him."  
  
That single word, spat out with such venom that Ruki trembled to hear it, expressed all that Ryou could not, did not want to say. It was accompanied by a contemptuous motion of the boy's chin towards the figure hunched over at the table before them.  
  
Ruki looked more closely at that figure and suddenly felt cold, "Who is that?"  
  
"Shadowmagemon," Ryou snarled, "The vilest, lowliest, darkest creature that ever soiled this plane of existence. He stole Cyberdramon's Digiegg and used it to trap me and imprison me here. Then he used his dark powers to-to corrupt Cyberdramon while he was still in his Digiegg."  
  
Ruki noticed that he was struggling with the words, and that he was utterly dry-eyed, yet the pain that passed over his face was such that it was as if he'd cried out all his tears a long time ago, and had nothing left.  
  
"But how could he have?" Ruki asked quietly, "You were with us the whole time."  
  
"No, I wasn't. Remember when I left the group for a little while and set out to search for Cyberdramon's Digiegg? Why do you think 'I' came back so quickly? He captured me then," Ryou whispered, "He used digital matter to- to create a copy of-of me. This clone was sent to destroy you guys. I couldn't do anything to stop him. All this time, all these years since you went back to the real world, the Ryou who was with you was the clone... and I was here."  
  
Ruki stared at him, speechless with shock.  
  
"The clone's name was Kai..."  
  
***  
  
"Okay, lemme get this straight," Miki said slowly, "You guys are all Tamers, except for you - she glanced at Kai - and you all have partner Digimon, once again except for you. - she shot another look at Kai and everyone else nodded - Okay, so two of you, no, wait, three of you have been captured by an evil Digimon and imprisoned in his castle? Oh, and two Digimon were captured too, and one became evil... And one of you is a clone of one of the three that were captured... All right, I'm confused here. 'How' did that-that Rei guy get captured again?"  
  
"Ryou," Hirokazu corrected her, scowling at what was apparently the indignity of having Ryou's name spoken wrongly in his presence; now that he remembered what Ryou was really like, Hirokazu had once more reverted to fan boy mode, though not as much as before, and not nearly as much as Kenta, who was clamoring that they go and storm Shadowmagemon's castle to bust Ryou (completely forgetting Juri, Ruki, Renamon, and possibly Cyberdramon) outta there right 'now'.  
  
"His Digimon..." Kai threw up his hands in exasperation, and turned to Takato, Jenrya, Hirokazu and Kenta, "I wasn't there when it happened, so I can't exactly tell her exactly what happened. You guys were, you explain."  
  
All four boys sighed reluctantly.  
  
"Momentai," Terriermon said soothingly, which didn't at all have the effect he desired.  
  
"All right, I'll start," Takato offered, "I created Guilmon, a long time ago. - He pointed to the red dinosaur Digimon, who waved and said hello - I drew him, and then I got a blue card, then a D-Ark - He held up the device - And then he came. No wait, first I got the blue card, 'then' I drew him."  
  
"Takato, that didn't make much sense," Jenrya reprimanded his friend, "What he means is, well, I suppose you know about the blue card and D-Ark part, since you've got one, but what Takato did... He drew Guilmon on a notepad, and slashed it through that slot you've got on your D-Ark. - At this Miki looked down and nodded as she ran her fingers over the slot - The digignomes - they're a type of digital creature that can, sort of, grant wishes or something - created Guilmon, and he came to the real world. I got Terriermon from a computer game, and Ruki got Renamon when she looked into the Digital World and was chosen as her partner."  
  
"Ruki-san was one of the ones who was kidnapped, right?" Miki inquired, receiving a glare from Terriermon for interrupting his Tamer.  
  
"That was rude, Jen," Terriermon remarked.  
  
"Yes, Terriermon," Jenrya replied absently, "Yes, she was, anyway, Katou- san - that's the other girl who's missing - got a D-Ark sometime during the time when we were fighting the Devas - Oh, shoot, now we've got to explain all that..."  
  
Everyone heaved a collective sigh, as Jenrya looked to the other Tamers for help, and together they all launched into an excruciatingly detailed account of their adventures in the real world and in the Digital World 4 years ago.  
  
***  
  
Quite a while later...  
  
"And so Katou-san, Ruki and Ryou-san are in Shadowmagemon's castle right now, as well as Ruki's Digimon Renamon, and Ryou-san's Digimon Cyberdramon, who got, well, corrupted, and we've got to go and rescue them," Takato finished, as everyone else heaved a huge collective sigh of relief.  
  
"Uh, Takatomon? I'm hungry," Guilmon whined as his stomach growled and made all sorts of odd noises.  
  
Takato threw up his hands and gave a half-grin in amused exasperation, "Aren't you always?"  
  
"Tell that to my tummy," Guilmon protested, clutching the part of his body in question.  
  
"You must be either very brave or very crazy," Silvemon told the Tamers, "Shadowmagemon is one of the most powerful Digimon that ever existed; some say he used to be the leader of the sovereigns, the guardian of the border between the worlds, and he was the one who created the digignomes from his own Digicores. He certainly is older than any of us, and there is a possibility that he is even stronger than the sovereigns themselves put together."  
  
"Great, just what we needed," Hirokazu said sarcastically, "More rabid sovereigns."  
  
"Hirokazu!" Takato, Jenrya and Kenta all rebuked him loudly at the same time.  
  
Miki just chuckled and Terriermon called out, "You said it, Hiro!"  
  
"Well, guess we're crazy, then," Kai grinned, addressing Silvemon, "Whatever happens, I-I mean, we- are going to get Jur-I mean, Ryou, Ruki, Katou-san and the Digimon outta there."  
  
The blue-eyed boy had somehow turned a violent shade of scarlet. Hirokazu whistled.  
  
"If I hadn't known better, I would've sworn Kai's face just turned into a setting sun."  
  
"Shut up, toothpick."  
  
"Don't call me that!"  
  
"I'll call you what I want to call you!"  
  
"Stop mimicking Ruki!"  
  
"Stop insulting me!"  
  
"WILL YOU GUYS CAN IT?!" Jenrya roared; instantly, silence fell, "Thank you."  
  
He quietly sat down, ignoring the fact that everyone was staring at him as though he'd just grown three extra heads.  
  
"Wow," Kenta was looking at the blue-haired boy in awe, "Didn't know you had it in you, Jenrya."  
  
"Oh, shut up," Jenrya retorted good-naturedly.  
  
***  
  
"Ryou. You've been here for the last four years?!" Ruki whispered, staring at the boy slumped in his chains beside her.  
  
She couldn't even begin to, and didn't want to, imagine what it was like, being locked up in this horrid castle with that-that 'thing' that was sitting before them. Ruki looked at Ryou's limp form, broken by such long confinement; she knew he was a wanderer, and couldn't bear to be locked up.  
  
'It must've been hell for him,' she realized, with a strange fleeting feeling that went as quickly as it came, 'What was that? Never mind... I have a feeling I don't want to know...'  
  
Ryou didn't reply; he must've known she wasn't expecting an answer. Ruki had to admit that he was worthy of admiration; though his situation had been hopeless as could be, he hadn't given up, and still defied his captor. And yet... there was something gone in him now.  
  
Ruki tore her violet eyes from the Tamer beside her; it made her feel... so... angry. What right had anyone to do this to someone? Moreover, to do such a thing to one of her friends? And yes, she was forced to admit that Ryou was her friend. Why else would she react so strongly at seeing him hurt like this? Her roving gaze landed on the dark form of Shadowmagemon, still hunched over something on the low stone table in the corner of the room. Ruki's slender hands curled into fists and her bright eyes flamed with hatred as she looked between him and Ryou. In that moment the tawny- haired girl knew only one thing.  
  
'He will pay for what he did.'  
  
***  
  
Just then Shadowmagemon rose gracefully to his feet and turned his darkened face towards his prisoners. Ruki and Ryou stiffened beneath his invisible gaze and both glared back defiantly as the unnaturally tall creature, his head brushing the ceiling, gave a soft, cruel chuckle.  
  
"I think I will give you two some 'alone' time. Isn't that kind of me?" his hidden features twisted into a none-too-pleasant smile, "However, I would not advise trying to escape from this room. Not unless you wish to be blasted into oblivion by NeoCyberdramon's Annihilation Flare."  
  
Shadowmagemon's smile widened as Ryou let out a snarl. Ruki was muttering a string of curses under her breath. How in the world were they going to get out of there?! The Dark Prince turned and was about to leave the room when he turned back, smiling cruelly at Ruki.  
  
"And perhaps I should inform you that your little vixen will be joining NeoCyberdramon shortly," Shadowmagemon chuckled delightedly again, "Oh, you human weaklings are 'so' entertaining. Sayonara, my distinguished 'guests'."  
  
And he swept out the door, still laughing, his black robes billowing behind him.  
  
"Cyberdramon..." Ruki heard Ryou growl under his breath.  
  
"NeoCyberdramon's-" Ruki's eyes widened, 'No, it can't be.'  
  
"What Cyberdramon is now," the blue-eyed Tamer beside her sighed, "He's controlled by Shadowmagemon now... AND THERE'S NOTHING I CAN DO ABOUT IT!!!!"  
  
Ruki instinctively shied away from him, startled by his sudden and very violent outburst. Ryou was panting as he recommenced struggling against his chains, rivulets of blood coursing down his thin arms.  
  
"Renamon, no," Ruki whispered, hanging her head.  
  
Suddenly a flash of Renamon's voice went through her head and she smiled slightly, "Yeah, I know those chains're strong. Ryou here's been trying to bust his way out of them since, well, since before we got here. Just keep on trying."  
  
"Ryou, stop it," Ruki said suddenly, "You'll only hurt yourself that way. We've got to find a way to destroy these chains, or to unlock them. If only one of the Digimon..."  
  
Ryou raised his spiky head and smiled weakly at her, "Never mind escape. I'm doing this to pass the time."  
  
This sentence caused Ruki to stare worriedly at him for a moment as he resumed his damaging exercise, then suddenly sounds from her other side made her turn around. Juri was stirring slightly, her eyelids fluttering as she struggled back to awareness.  
  
***  
  
Meanwhile, in the underground dungeon, the other Tamers and their Digimon were trying to find a way to escape from what had become their prison, and to formulate a plan to somehow rescue their three comrades and their two Digimon from Shadowmagemon's castle.  
  
"We'll have to travel far, I'm afraid," Kai sighed, "And we can't use the data streams to save time, though I wish we could. They're notoriously unpredictable and you could end up anywhere."  
  
"We kind of noticed," Takato said dryly.  
  
"So where is this castle?" Jenrya asked, always the practical one.  
  
"Well, according to what I remember, it's somewhere that can't be reached by ordinary means," Kai replied, suddenly looking even more unhappy, "The only way to enter the Shadow Realm is through a portal that changes locations every day, and to enter the portal, you have to find the Key, which is said to be disguised and very well guarded."  
  
"You've remembered correctly, then," Silvemon nodded, confirming Kai's uncertain words.  
  
"Great!" Hirokazu yelled, "And what's the bad news?"  
  
Kai smiled slightly, then his face grew somber, "The Dark Prince's castle is extremely well guarded, and very vast. Rumor has it that he has invisible servants, mutated types of Digimon, floating all about the Shadow Realm, ready to devour anyone that dares to enter that place."  
  
"Well, isn't it just the paradise vacation I wanted?" Miki remarked, "We have to find a portal that changes places all the time, 'after' we find a Key that's guarded 'and' disguised, and 'then' we have to go to the Shadow Realm, fight our way through invisible monsters and hordes of Digimon, while looking for our friends in a castle that could hide a small country, and 'then' we'd probably have to face Shadowmagemon himself. Piece of cake!"  
  
"Momentai," Terriermon agreed from his position on Jenrya's head.  
  
"Um, guys?" Kenta ventured nervously, "Maybe we should get out of here before we discuss that."  
  
"And before Guilmon gets so hungry he eats us all," Terriermon put in, eyeing the restless red dinosaur a tad anxiously.  
  
"Okay, then... What should we do?" Takato asked everyone.  
  
"Well, assuming that that hole in the castle floor we fell down hasn't been sealed off yet..." Jenrya mused, "If we all climb on Guardromon, maybe we can just fly up and out."  
  
"It's worth a try," Kai agreed.  
  
"Uh-huh," Miki and Hirokazu said at the same time.  
  
Kenta shot them a sulky look. Saying things at the same time as Hirokazu was supposed to be 'his' job. Jenrya, spotting the spectacled boy's discomfort, grinned and patted him on the shoulder, which of course only served to make Kenta angrier.  
  
"Think you can carry this lot, Guardromon?" Hirokazu asked his partner, grinning.  
  
"I don't know," Guardromon scratched his head with a brown metallic finger, "As gluttonous as those two are... - he glanced discreetly at Terriermon and Guilmon - Maybe we should get to where we fell, first."  
  
All of them walked out of the torchlight into the darkness whence they'd come, and Silvemon's soft glow served to let them see a little better. Soon Kenta had discovered a small point of light above their heads. The rest craned their necks to get a better look at it.  
  
"I'm surprised we were actually able to survive a fall of that height," Jenrya remarked as he examined the small light.  
  
"Let's just be glad we did," Kai said into the gloom.  
  
"C'mon, everyone, hop on Guardromon!" Hirokazu called from his place on his partner's shoulder.  
  
"Get on my back, Miki," Silvemon told her Tamer.  
  
"Um, okay," Miki replied, a little uncertainly.  
  
But she placed her hands on Silvemon's back and vaulted lightly on. She'd taken some gymnastics when she was younger, due to her Mom's obsession with having a - what'd she call it again? - Oh yeah - perfect little lady. Miki snorted; in that matter her mother had been sorely disappointed. Well, Rai could have another kid at any time if she wanted to, judging from the amount of men and boys alike who constantly turned up wherever she went. Miki rolled her eyes as she made herself comfortable on Silvemon's furry back.  
  
'Animal magnetism.'  
  
When everyone was comfortably installed, Guardromon and Silvemon slowly rose towards the pinpoint of light above them. The combination of the hum of Guardromon's rockets and the soft swish of Silvemon's black wings was somehow soothing. Everyone relaxed somewhat, even Kenta, who was extremely afraid of heights. Suddenly Guardromon crashed into an invisible wall that sent waves of electricity crackling over his brown frame.  
  
"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!"  
  
"Somebody do something!" Hirokazu yelled through gritted teeth as he was hit by the electric shocks, along with the rest of the children and Digimon Guardromon was carrying.  
  
"Hiro. kazu . Can't." Guardromon was struggling to get the words out around the pain of the electric shocks that were short-circuiting him.  
  
What he was trying to communicate, however, became apparent when his rockets suddenly died and Guardromon plummeted downwards into the darkness, taking his riders with him.  
  
"This is so stupid, Silvemon, we've gotta do something!" Miki yelled as she watched the others fall.  
  
Silvemon folded up her wings, readying herself for a dive, when suddenly Hirokazu's voice rang out in the pitch black of the hole, "Card Slash! White Wings!"  
  
There was a flash of white light, and soon Guardromon came floating back up slowly towards Miki and Silvemon, having sprouted six glowing white wings from his back.  
  
Hirokazu was handing a card back to Takato, "Thanks, chumley. For a moment there I thought we were going to end up flattened on that stone floor."  
  
"No problem," Takato smiled as he pocketed the card, "But that invisible wall."  
  
"Silvemon?" Miki inquired, "What are we going to- "Lightning Scythe!" - Oh, okay, then."  
  
Her partner had just slashed her tail through the invisible wall, which had gone up in a flash of ghostly purple, and soon everyone was standing on the edge of the large hole in the ground in the torchlit corridor of castle.  
  
"Wow," Miki breathed, admiring the high vaulted ceiling, "Nice castle you've got here."  
  
"It's not our castle," Hirokazu said irritably, "I think I'm gonna start getting tired of these torches pretty soon."  
  
"Let's get going, shall we?" Jenrya interrupted.  
  
"Um, how do we get out of here?" Takato asked.  
  
The rest were silent.  
  
"You 'don't' mean we're lost?" Miki said incredulously.  
  
No answer came.  
  
***  
  
Shadowmagemon sat at the high throne of the Council Chamber in his castle, looking over his five most high-ranked servants. More lurked in the shadows at the side, but he paid them no heed. At a motion of his clawed hand, one of the five, a tall black one that looked somewhat like a velociraptor with curly spikes and silver plated armor all over it, moving with easy, predatory grace, stepped forward, bowing and then raising his pale blue slit-pupil gaze towards the Dark Prince.  
  
"What tidings from the South, Feragmamon?" Shadowmagemon asked the Perfect casually, twirling a small poisoned throwing dart in his long fingers.  
  
"I've finally managed to learn some things about the Golden Tetrahedron," Feragmamon informed him calmly, "It is linked to one of the Chosen Children, who call themselves the Tamers, but I am not certain which."  
  
"Excellent," Shadowmagemon nodded, "I wish for you to continue your gathering of information in the south. See if you can learn more about the Chosen Child whom the Tetrahedron is linked to."  
  
"Yes, Master," Feragmamon bowed and backed up to join his fellows.  
  
"As for the rest of you," Shadowmagemon ordered, "I will give you the task of hunting down the Chosen Children and their Digimon. Do not harm the Tamers, but weaken their Digimon as much as you can and bring them back to me, along with their human partners, or destroy them if they are too weak. And eliminate the one who has no Digimon. I have no further use for him."  
  
The four others bowed, and as they all exited the Chamber Shadowmagemon smiled to himself, 'Chosen Children, coming here once again will be your doom.'  
  
***  
  
~Whoa! The Tamers are in trouble! And what's this Golden Tetrahedron Shadowmagemon and his subordinate were talking about? Who is it linked to? What will happen to Renamon and the prisoners? Find out in the next chapter of Shadow Realms! So how was this chapter? The plot thickens! I know I've only got one Digimon fight so far, but be patient while I try to learn how to play the damned card game! (I have no idea how to play it) I don't know what I was thinking when I put Miki down as a good card player, jeez, can someone help me out here? I don't know how to play the Digimon card game! Okay, well, thanks to all the wonderful people who reviewed my story, hope you guys liked this chapter! Please review! Thanks!~ 


	7. The Tip of the Iceberg

UPDATE: I just watched 'Kazu's Upgrade' this Sunday... and today... okay, five times over at the very least, anyway, as a result, I've gone back to Part I and I've almost completely changed Ruki's perception of Hiro, so go back and check it out! Another change in Part V, I added a description of my made-up card slash sequence for Hiro! Yay! More changes located in Part III, someone tells Hiro about Ruki's crush on him! Who? Go back and read to find out! Changes to this chapter: I've added the description for Miki's card slash sequence! All right! Also, Guardromon's how it's spelled, right? Dammit, they're confusing us! In Season 1, 'Ultimate Clash', they give us Gardromon, and now they give us Guardromon! Jeez!  
  
~Okay, this chapter turned out very long, and there's a huge fight in it, so check it out! * Pats herself on the back * I sure hope I got all the terms right and everything. Oh, and did I mention I was switching to Japanese names, attacks and levels? Here's a little info:  
  
Japanese Levels: Child = Rookie Adult = Champion Perfect = Ultimate Ultimate = Mega  
  
Japanese Names: Makino Ruki = Rika Lee Jenrya = Henry Matsuda Takato = Takato Katou Juri = Jeri Akiyama Ryou = Ryo Galgomon = Gargomon Growmon = Growlmon Megalo Growmon = Wargrowlmon Okaa-san = Mother Otou-san = Father  
  
Don't ask me why I switched! I just did! And Jenrya sounds so much more kawaii than Henry... Okay, enough blabbering, now on with the story! R, E & R!!!~  
  
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The Shadow Realms: Part VII - The Tip of the Iceberg  
  
------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
"R-Ruki-chan? Where are we?" was the first thing out of Juri's mouth once she was fully awake and staring about with large, frightened hazel eyes.  
  
Ruki groaned; she absolutely hated explaining this kind of thing, 'How do you tell someone that they're imprisoned in the castle of an evil Digimon and that escape is virtually impossible because what used to be one of their friends' Digimon is guarding the door?'  
  
Luckily, Ryou chose that moment to poke his head round with one of his trademark half-grins, "Welcome back. You were out for quite a while there."  
  
Juri's eyes widened as she took in the boy's ragged appearance, "Ryou-san?! What- what happened to you?!"  
  
He sighed heavily. Ruki could see that he didn't want to explain it all again, so she did it for him. Ryou shot her a surprised but grateful look as she rattled off the story.  
  
"...And so now we're stuck in here, with NeoCyberdramon just outside the door ready to blast us to pieces, and Renamon about to join him if we don't do something," Ruki concluded.  
  
Juri's eyes had grown, if possible, even larger and more frightened. But she just nodded mutely, accepting Ruki's story without question.  
  
"Well, does anyone have any ideas on how to escape?" she asked in her quiet voice.  
  
The other two shook their heads dejectedly. Juri sighed and looked about their prison. Suddenly something oddly brilliant caught her eye.  
  
"Hey, what's that?"  
  
"Oh, that's just Shadowmagemon's scrying mirror," Ryou informed her, "He uses it to follow things going on in the Digital World. He was spying on you guys until Kai turned against him and smashed the dark D-Ark."  
  
"Kai turned against him?" Ruki asked in surprise.  
  
Ryou nodded, then shot a sly look at the girl on her other side, "I think it had more than a little to do with that bastard's capture of Katou-san here."  
  
Juri blushed, "Nonsense!"  
  
***  
  
Guilmon was leading the way through the countless hallways of the castle, his nostrils flared and sniffing frenetically at some scent only he could discern. The Tamers and the other four Digimon walked silently behind him.  
  
"Remind me again: just 'why' are we following 'Guilmon'?!" Hirokazu said loudly.  
  
Takato turned to his spiky-haired friend with a sigh, "Because Guilmon's nose is very sensitive, and I'm trying to get him to smell the way out."  
  
"Do you really think that'll work, Takato?" Kenta asked skeptically.  
  
"Well, if you have a better idea, Kenta, I would 'love' to hear it," Takato said crossly, turning to catch up with his red dinosaur friend.  
  
Kenta fell silent. Hirokazu, however, continued talking, telling Miki about their missing friends. The dark-haired girl was listening closely, a slight grin on her tanned face.  
  
"... and then we met Ryou-san, he was 'so' cool, I mean, Cyberdramon was just awesome, y'know, this great big metal dragon, and 'so' damn strong, man, he beat Majiramon just squeezin' the heck outta him- Hey, Guardromon, you're pretty cool too, dude," Hirokazu interrupted himself, patting his sulking Digimon's metallic arm.  
  
Miki rolled her eyes and laughed, " 'The' Akiyama Ryou is a Tamer, eh? He's a good guy, but kinda hard to get a hold of, since his fan club mobs him wherever he goes. or tries to go. Probably the reason he ran off to the Digital World in the first place."  
  
Hirokazu stared at her in disbelief, "You 'knew' him?!"  
  
Miki chuckled at the spiky-haired boy's tone, "Yeah, 'course I did, we used to be neighbors."  
  
"Cool!" Hirokazu looked at her expectantly, "So? What was it like?"  
  
She grinned, "We were both crazy about Digimon. He taught me almost everything I know about the card game."  
  
Her grin turned into another bubbly laugh as Hirokazu's awed expression shifted immediately to one of alarm. Miki's green eyes sparkled with amusement as she contemplated the brown-haired boy thoughtfully.  
  
"Enough about me, what about you?" she asked him cheerfully.  
  
Hirokazu grinned mischievously and Kai, trudging along behind them, rolled his eyes, 'Here he goes again.'  
  
"I." Hirokazu paused for a dramatic moment to raise his fist before continuing, "am the Savior of the Digital World and the best Tamer ever! Ryou-san thanked me once for saving him!"  
  
"O. kay." Miki gave him a rather odd look, arching her eyebrow.  
  
"What were you comparing yourself to, Hirokazu?" Kai asked scornfully, "A cardboard box?"  
  
"Hey!"  
  
"Would you two knock it off?!" Takato snapped at the two bickering boys, "Something's coming."  
  
Hirokazu and Kai released each other's throats and looked up. Miki was trying not to laugh at the pair of them. Guilmon's pupils had shrunk and he was growling menacingly. Suddenly the air seemed to thicken around them and Hirokazu began to complain about the heat.  
  
***  
  
Creaking footsteps echoed ominously through the castle, coming closer and closer. Suddenly an orangish-red projectile whistled through the air from an unknown location and just missed hitting Takato in the head.  
  
"Whoa!" Takato stared at the smoking hole in the wall beside his head, "That was close!"  
  
"You can say that again," Jenrya agreed, unclipping his D-Ark from his belt, "Whatever it is, it sure doesn't seem to be friendly."  
  
"Great," Kenta said unhappily.  
  
A shadow stretched across the floor from one of the side-halls ahead, and a massive Digimon stalked into view.  
  
"Holy cow!" Hirokazu yelled as Kenta skidded to his side with a cry and hid behind him.  
  
"Momentai!" Terriermon cried as his ears flew up from the wind of Kenta's extremely rapid passing.  
  
***  
  
Miki surveyed the scene calmly. They were facing a six-foot-tall-or-so brownish-orange mass with weird eyestalks like a snail's that swiveled here and there, fixing their target with an eerie empty white gaze, and its body was sending off steam as bubbles of red-hot plasma rose sluggishly to the surface and popped.  
  
"One thing's for sure," Miki found herself saying as Silvemon crouched protectively in front of her, snarling fiercely, "I 'don't' want to be hugged by that thing!"  
  
"Total agreement over here," Takato commented as he pulled Guilmon back from the monster.  
  
The red dinosaur was impatient to fight, and Takato had a lot of trouble holding him back while he took out his D-Ark, "No, boy, wait! Blavamon, Adult level Virus type Digimon, his attacks are Scald Goop and Lava Tide."  
  
"Man, what's with us and blobs?!" Hirokazu asked nobody in particular loudly as he craned his neck to meet Blavamon's queer gaze, "What a creep!"  
  
"Scald Goop!"  
  
"Blazing Fire!"  
  
The Blavamon launched a red-hot blob at Jenrya, which was immediately deflected by a well-aimed barrage of small green light pellets from Terriermon.  
  
"Looks like you were right, Jenrya," Miki remarked.  
  
Takato gave an uncharacteristic smirk as he assessed the situation and let Guilmon go, "All right, I have just the card for this."  
  
He reached into his pocket with a satisfied smile and extracted a card, "Card Slash! Frigimon!" (A/N: I dunno if such a card exists, I'm totally making things up here. Told ya I hadn't a clue how to play the card game)  
  
Guilmon's right arm glowed and a white mitt appeared at the end. With a feral growl, the red Digimon charged forward toward the bubbling mass that was Blavamon, brandishing his white mitt. Blavamon, of course, was not about to take a beating placidly.  
  
"Scald Goop!"  
  
"Sub-Zero Ice Punch!" Guilmon froze the formless orange projectile whizzing through the air at him, letting it fall harmlessly to the ground and shatter into a thousand tiny shards of ice.  
  
Miki observed all this with interest, and looked down at the slot on her D- Ark, 'So 'that's' how this thing works! Awesome!'  
  
However, while Guilmon was busy with the Blavamon's attack, the enemy Digimon launched another one at him at astonishing speed, "Lava Tide!"  
  
Guilmon had no time to dodge. He screamed in pain as he was burned by the thick steaming orange lava.  
  
"Guilmon, no!" Takato cried, searching frantically through his cards for something that would help his friend.  
  
***  
  
The other Tamers were far from idle.  
  
"Double Card Slash!" Jenrya cried as Terriermon leaped with his usual eagerness into the fray, "MetalGarurumon! Power Charger!"  
  
Terriermon glowed with a blinding bluish-white light and a massive blindingly bright blue and white wave shot out of his mouth, "Kokyutoss Breath!"  
  
At the same time, Guilmon, somehow back on his feet, charged and drove his mitt into Blavamon's steaming middle, spreading ice over his lower parts, "Sub-Zero Ice Punch!"  
  
He then darted away, and Blavamon, with his lower parts frozen solid, couldn't move out of the way of Terriermon's attack, and his size made him unable to dodge it.  
  
"Lava Tide!" the orange blob Digimon tried to deflect Terriermon's attack, to no avail; the wave froze the Lava Tide and turned it against its originator.  
  
Terriermon's attack hit Blavamon hard, drawing an agonized scream and sending the steaming blob crashing into the wall behind him as the rest of him was encased in a thick sheath of ice. Deep cracks opened in the stone, and huge chunks began raining down around the Tamers, revealing bits of sky where they'd been.  
  
"Gee, why didn't we think of this before?" Miki remarked sarcastically amid the falling rocks and shaking of the castle, "When lost in a huge castle, just blast your way out!"  
  
"Take cover, everyone!" Takato yelled above the ear-splitting crack of rock breaking.  
  
"Aaaaah!" Kenta cringed, covering his face with his arms.  
  
Hirokazu gave his best friend an exasperated look, "Kenta, d'ya really think that if a rock fell on you, your puny little arms would protect you against having your head split open?!"  
  
Kenta gulped and dove under Guardromon.  
  
"Hey! Stop that, you'll trip him up!" Hirokazu protested, trying to extract his friend from beneath his Digimon, rather surprised at how heavy Kenta was, for such a skinny kid.  
  
"Card Slash!" Jenrya yelled desperately, "Brave Shield!"  
  
Terriermon acquired a large geometrically shaped and patterned golden shield. He raised it over his head, and it protected quite well against the falling rock, but only Lopmon could have fitted comfortably under there. Jenrya sighed and sweatdropped as he took in the situation. He looked around at the others. Guardromon was easily the biggest Digimon.  
  
"Hirokazu! Use this card!" Jenrya threw it to the spiky-haired boy.  
  
"Wha-?!" Hirokazu almost didn't catch the card in his surprise.  
  
"Slash it, then have Guardromon raise it over his head like an umbrella!" the other boy finally understood and took out his D-Ark, "Terriermon's way too small to do it."  
  
"Hey!"  
  
"Well, it's true," Jenrya smirked at his floppy-eared partner.  
  
"Jen! Since when did you get to be so rude?!" Terriermon paused, looking thoughtful, "Oh, yeah, since you met that Ruki girl..."  
  
"Card Slash!" Hirokazu used the card Jenrya had given him, "Brave Shield!"  
  
Guardromon grunted as he lifted the shield, sheltering himself and his partner as well as Miki, Kai, Kenta and Silvemon from the falling debris, "Everyone come under! Digi-Umbrella service! ...For those of you who enjoy a downpour of rocks."  
  
Hirokazu shot his partner a startled look and sweatdropped, "Ruki was right, I am having a bad influence on you!"  
  
Miki was in stitches beside him as Digimon and Tamer stared at each other in consternation. Jenrya came under the shield, still trying to strangle Terriermon for his remark about Ruki. Takato and Guilmon hurried in too, after sorting out an unfortunate incident in which a rock landed on Guilmon's tail and caused him to accidentally singe Takato's messy brown hair with his Fireball.  
  
***  
  
Ruki growled in frustration as she eyed the blue-lined and mostly silver D- Ark sitting on the table beside the scrying mirror, along with her brown cardpocket, 'Ugh! If only I could reach it... Maybe I'd be able to help Renamon break those chains by evolving her into Taomon. But these damn chains...'  
  
"It's no use staring, Ruki," Ryou sighed, "Mine's gone too... Not that it would be much use right now."  
  
Ruki glanced at his silver-lined and mostly blue D-Ark, the exact opposite of hers, glinting on the table beside her own in the dim light from the sole yellowed lamp in the room. It was completely dark and lifeless. She sighed and looked away. No Tamer deserved that. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Juri smiling sympathetically at Ryou.  
  
'She knows what it feels like to lose her partner,' Ruki realized, shuddering, 'I hope I'll never share that knowledge. If I lost Renamon...'  
  
She squeezed her violet eyes tightly shut, refusing to think about it.  
  
***  
  
Juri, meanwhile, sighed and stared into space, deep in thought.  
  
'I hope Takato-kun and the others are all right,' she bit her lip, 'I was so stupid to think... that Leomon could be back...'  
  
Juri hung her head.  
  
"Are you okay, Juri?" she looked up at Ruki's gentle query.  
  
The violet-eyed girl was looking at her with understanding in her face. Juri smiled; Ruki was so nice now. It felt good to have her as a friend.  
  
"I... Leomon..." Juri shook her head, unable to put into words what was weighing on her heart.  
  
***  
  
"I..." Ruki lapsed into silence; she couldn't exactly say that she understood how the other felt, because she didn't, and they both knew that, so to say so would mean nothing.  
  
Completely unused to resolving this kind of situation, Ruki racked her brain for something, anything comforting to say.  
  
But all she could come up with was, "Don't worry, I'm sure we'll get out of here... somehow."  
  
Juri nodded and turned away. Ruki sighed.  
  
'Dammit, Jenrya's the one who's good at this type of thing, not me. I hope the others won't run into too much trouble. Though knowing Takato and Hirokazu, wherever trouble is, they're sure to be in the middle of it.'  
  
Ruki wondered why she felt so worried about this, and why a certain spiky- haired visor-wearing Tamer with slate blue eyes suddenly slid into her mind and refused to get out.  
  
***  
  
Things quieted down a little after most of the castle had collapsed. The Tamers looked around at the chaos they'd caused with some surprise.  
  
"Well, that castle must've been pretty old to just go down like that," Miki remarked, rubbing her temples and raising her eyebrows.  
  
"Well, at least we defeated Blavamon," Kai added, glancing at the smoking pile of debris that sat where Blavamon had been, "... I hope."  
  
Silvemon snarled, her pale turquoise gaze fixing on the pile of smoldering rocks, "It's not over yet. I can still smell him."  
  
"Oh, no," Kenta moaned when he heard this, causing his glasses to slip down his nose and come to rest crookedly on the tip.  
  
"Awww, don't be a stick in the mud, Silvemon," Miki shook her head, "You're scaring poor ickle Kenta!"  
  
"Hey!" Hirokazu and Kai sniggered as Kenta stood up indignantly, trying to look imposing and completely failing; his glasses fell off his nose and Silvemon darted forward to catch them in her teeth before they broke on the ground.  
  
"Thanks," Kenta muttered, flustered, as Silvemon held out his glasses.  
  
"Anytime," Silvemon replied, flexing her powerful black wing-ears.  
  
Kenta missed the sarcasm.  
  
"Jnlegofmeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!" Terriermon squealed, trying to pry Jenrya's hands from his throat.  
  
"Um, maybe you should let go of him, Jenrya," Kenta intervened.  
  
"Sorry, Terriermon, didn't catch that," Jenrya replied cheerfully, completely ignoring Kenta and continuing to throttle his Digimon, "Hey, Takato, since when have you worn a toupee?"  
  
Takato frowned and sweatdropped as Hirokazu and Miki both snorted with laughter and Kai sniggered, "It's not a toupee."  
  
"Gomen nasai, Takatomon," Guilmon whimpered, his ears drooping.  
  
"It's okay, Guilmon, it wasn't your- "GRRRRRRAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!!" - fault," Takato sweatdropped as he was interrupted by Blavamon's roar of fury.  
  
***  
  
The red-hot blob was moving towards them at top speed. Suddenly there was a commotion behind them. It was a sort of large leathery-winged bird with a long, sharp beak lined with silver fangs, and huge bulging blue eyes that looked way too big for its head. All in all, it wasn't a pleasant sight.  
  
"Oh, no," Takato moaned, "Just what we needed."  
  
Miki's D-Ark suddenly activated as Silvemon squinted at the creature, "Huh?! Apteryxmon, Perfect level Flying Beast Digimon! Its attacks are Fang Blizzard and Wind of Age. Uh-oh, I think we're in trouble..."  
  
Kai, who was standing beside her and feeling quite useless, frowned, 'Trouble is an understatement.'  
  
They were trapped between two Digimon, neither of which seemed very friendly.  
  
'Kuso! I'm so useless!' Kai thought in frustration, grinding his teeth, 'I need a Digimon to do anything in this kind of situation!'  
  
The bird suddenly swooped down at them and they all ducked, including Guardromon. Its long purple tail, which seemed to be made of sleek rippling ribbons, whacked the shield and sent Guardromon skidding several feet away.  
  
"Guardromon!" Hirokazu cried, throwing caution to the winds as he ran away from the now-exposed group and dashed to see if his partner was all right.  
  
"Hirokazu, come back!" Jenrya called frantically after him, "Look out!"  
  
"Aaaaah!" Kenta buried his face in his hands, unable to look.  
  
"Gaah!" Hirokazu threw himself on the ground, just in time; Apteryxmon's cruel talons barely missed him, but then its tail swung downwards in a lightning fast whipping motion without warning.  
  
"Hirokazu!" Takato shouted, horrified, as he watched the long purple ribbons, now identified as a queer sort of whip, fly downwards upon his friend, "No!"  
  
"Card Slash!" came Miki's voice from behind him, "High Speed Plug-In H!"  
  
Silvemon suddenly blurred into being just beside Hirokazu. Her deadly tail moved too fast for human eyes to see.  
  
"Lightning Scythe!"  
  
"KREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!" screamed the Apteryxmon as a large portion of its long purple tail-whip-ribbons fell limply to the ground, neatly sliced by Silvemon's attack.  
  
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and Hirokazu hastened to get out of the line of fire as Silvemon and Apteryxmon faced off against each other. In the opposite direction, a different fight was raging.  
  
***  
  
"Blazing Fire!"  
  
"Fireball!"  
  
Both attacks hit the Blavamon without much effect. Jenrya and Takato exchanged a look, then, as if by mutual consent, they both whipped out the same card and readied their D-Arks.  
  
"Card Slash!" they shouted together, "Super Evolution Plug-In S!"  
  
EVOLUTION_  
  
"Terriermon, shinka!" the small Child level rabbit's form grew and expanded in his cocoon of green data to become a green and white bunny man with red Indian markings, blue pants, a belt across his chest and guns attached to the end of his arms, "Galgomon!"  
  
"Guilmon, shinka!" the red dinosaur suddenly shot up several feet, encased in glowing red data, and a huge red biped T-rex-like creature with white mane all down its back, black markings, a white underbelly and blades on the sides of its front 'hands' roared its challenge to the sky, "Growmon!"  
  
"Have a taste of my Gatling Arm, ya big pieca Jell-O!" Galgomon leapt forward, blasting the Blavamon with green pellets of light.  
  
"Plasma Blade!" Growmon followed, slashing his glowing blue side blade across Blavamon's stalk-eyes.  
  
"AAAAAAAAAARRRRRGH!!!!!!" Blavamon was blinded by Growmon's attack, and it writhed about as its slashed eyes oozed a slimy black liquid, sending attacks everywhere, "Lava Tide!"  
  
"Yuck!" Galgomon commented as he charged forward once more, evading the jet of steaming angry red lava sent forth by Blavamon, jumping into the air in preparation for his attack: "Dum Dum Upper!"  
  
As Blavamon howled from Galgomon's blow to its chin (or, more accurately, the area below its irregularly shaped mouth-hole), Jenrya whipped out a card, "Card Slash! Strength Plug-in W!"  
  
"Oh yeah!" Galgomon cheered as his firepower increased.  
  
"Card Slash!" Takato followed suit, "Power Charger!"  
  
'What's going on?!' he wondered as Growmon was surrounded by a fiery glow of power, 'This guy's way too strong for an Adult. Something's not right here.'  
  
"Exhaust Flame!" Growmon's jet of fire sent the Blavamon flying backwards several feet, to land with a rather wet plop very far away.  
  
"Warning Laser!" Guardromon joined the fight, minus his huge encumbering shield.  
  
"Go get him, Guardromon!" Hirokazu encouraged his partner from his vantage point near Jenrya and Takato, "Card Slash! Hououmon!"  
  
"Starlight Explosion!" Guardromon's attack drew an ear-splitting scream from the Blavamon, and its data began to behave erratically as it weakened considerably.  
  
"Scald Goop!" Blavamon made a final stand, "Scald Goop! SCALD GOOP!"  
  
"Exhaust Flame!"  
  
"Destruction Grenade!"  
  
"Gatling Arm!"  
  
Growmon, Guardromon and Galgomon all countered the flying orangish-red blobs coming for them at top speed.  
  
"Lava Tide!" Blavamon's last desperate shot missed the three Digimon completely.  
  
"Hey, what's up with that?!" Galgomon wondered aloud as the large gob of orange plasma flowed past him.  
  
"Takatomon!" Growmon had whirled round and seen Blavamon's attack heading straight for Jenrya and Takato, "Exhaust Flame!"  
  
The Lava Tide was deflected just in time, and the force of its collision with Growmon's attack threw both boys to the ground.  
  
"You guys okay?" Galgomon called to them, then turned back to Blavamon with a very unpleasant expression on his face, "Let's teach this guy a lesson!"  
  
"Yeah, don't touch Takatomon!" Growmon roared angrily.  
  
"All at once!" Jenrya and Takato yelled together, "NOW!"  
  
All three Digimon charged forward at the same time, preparing their various attacks as they converged on Blavamon.  
  
"Gatling Arm!"  
  
"Plasma Blade!"  
  
"Destruction Grenade!"  
  
"NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!" with a final dying scream, the Blavamon broke up into bits of data.  
  
"Whew! That was one hard nut to crack," Jenrya commented as Galgomon and Growmon joined them.  
  
"Gotta agree with you there," Takato replied, wiping his forehead, 'For some reason, I have a very bad feeling about all of this.'  
  
***  
  
"Not good," Zhuqiaomon growled as the sovereigns watched the fight from Sky City, "These aren't normal Digimon. No normal Adult should be that resilient."  
  
"Shadowmagemon has begun playing with Evolution," Qinglongmon said heavily, his long white beard drooping, "His Dark Digicores can somehow trigger a different sort of Evolution from the Digi-Entelechy; the Digimon issuing from this Evolution are stronger than normal Digimon."  
  
"We must somehow stop him," Xuanwumon put in, "This is an abomination! Playing with Digimons' basic programs is no small thing!"  
  
"I agree," Baihumon snarled, tossing his great white striped head, "Shadowmagemon cannot be allowed to continue with this tinkering!"  
  
"There's nothing we can do," Zhuqiaomon replied, his multiple eyes blinking all at once, "The Chosen Children will have to deal with this one. Is the Golden Tetrahedron still safe?"  
  
"Yes," Qinglongmon nodded slowly, "But Shadowmagemon's agents draw ever closer to discovering its whereabouts."  
  
"They must not do so!" Zhuqiaomon said vehemently, "The Golden Tetrahedron must not fall into the enemy's hands. If it does, who knows what havoc he may wreak!"  
  
"If worst comes to worst, we will have to summon the Chosen Children, and ask for their aid," Xuanwumon said.  
  
"Where is the Digi-Entelechy?" Zhuqiaomon asked Qinglongmon suddenly.  
  
"He is currently roaming freely in the Digital World," the colossal blue dragon replied.  
  
"Then we must find him, and bring him here," Zhuqiaomon hissed, "If Shadowmagemon's aims are what I think they are, the Digi-Entelechy may be in danger."  
  
"Yes," Xuanwumon's two heads nodded together.  
  
"Iodramon!" a large yellow dragon covered in crystalline armor, with a long black mane, appeared at Zhuqiaomon's summons.  
  
Despite his mass, Iodramon was dwarfed by the sovereigns. He was one of the new Devas Zhuqiaomon had acquired over the years after the downfall of the D-Reaper.  
  
"Yes, Zhuqiaomon?" the yellow dragon bowed to his lord, "What is your wish?"  
  
"I want you to find Culumon, and bring him here, as quickly as possible," Zhuqiaomon commanded, "Go now."  
  
Iodramon bowed even lower and disappeared like a flash of lightning, speeding out from Sky City to commence his search for the little white Digimon with purple-lined ears and large green eyes that was the Digi- Entelechy.  
  
"We have done all we can for now," Zhuqiaomon said after the Deva had left.  
  
"Let us wait, and watch," Qinglongmon concluded the conversation and the four sovereign Digimon fell silent, watching closely over the Digital World, and trying to peer into the workings of the Shadow Realms.  
  
***  
  
"Lune Gale!" Silvemon's wings sent white-hot crescent-shaped glowing projectiles flying at Apteryxmon, and they sent the other Digimon wheeling backwards.  
  
However, Apteryxmon just came back for more. Silvemon darted here and there, having to use all her agility to avoid the great bird's attacks.  
  
"Fang Blizzard!" Apteryxmon opened its beak and its fangs all came off to be replaced by new ones, whizzing at Silvemon with extraordinary speed.  
  
"Card Slash!" Miki cried, holding the card horizontally between the two forefingers of her right hand and raising it above her head, and taking her turquoise D-Ark in her left hand she raised that hand above her head as well, slot towards the right. With swift arcing motions towards the inside so that the two met in the innermost points of the two arcs' curves, she slid the card through the slot, "Boost Chip!"  
  
"LUNE GALE!" Silvemon's attack sent all the fangs flying back where they came from, burying themselves in their owner's flesh.  
  
"KREEEEEEE!" Apteryxmon screamed in pain but didn't go down, "Wind of Age!"  
  
"Lune Gale!" Silvemon countered.  
  
However, as the Wind of Age attack hit Silvemon's attack, the Lune Gale turned to dust and crumbled to pieces, to be carried away on the wind. Silvemon backed away, startled, as Apteryxmon came at her with an evil look in his huge blue eyes.  
  
"What the-?!" Miki cried, seeing the effect of Apteryxmon's attack.  
  
"Warning Laser!" Guardromon intervened, sending Apteryxmon reeling back as it was caught by surprise.  
  
"Gatling Arm!" Galgomon ran out onto the battlefield.  
  
"Exhaust Flame!" Growmon's attack didn't hit its target, however, since they'd already lost the element of surprise.  
  
"Do we evolve again?" Jenrya asked Takato, rubbing his forehead.  
  
"Uh-huh," Takato nodded quietly, "To Ultimate. There's something strange about that Digimon. I don't like that Wind of Age attack. If it hits one of our Digimon..."  
  
Jenrya nodded fervently and they each selected a card at random in their decks and willed it to become a blue card.  
  
"Card Slash!" they called out in unison, "Matrix Evolution!"  
  
MATRIX EVOLUTION_  
  
"Galgomon, shinka!" the bunny man Digimon transformed into a large flying creature with wing-like ears, blue eyes and thick green armor covering its entire body, "Rapidmon!"  
  
"Growmon, shinka!" Growmon became a colossal red cyborg T-rex with cannons on his chest and large silver blades along his arms, as well as steel armor everywhere, "Megalo Growmon!"  
  
"Take that bird DOWN!" Takato screamed, pointing a trembling finger at Apteryxmon.  
  
"Roger," Rapidmon joked as he and Megalo Growmon attacked. He put his arms straight out to the sides in a crucifixion position, and put his feet together. A yellow line drew a triangle with points touching his hands and his joined feet, then it filled and a golden triangular beam shot out, "Golden Triangle!"  
  
"Wind of Age!" Apteryxmon screeched, rendering Rapidmon's attack useless.  
  
"Atomic Blaster!" Takato and Megalo Growmon cried together, taking advantage of the momentary distraction provided by Rapidmon to charge up the powerful cannons on Megalo Growlmon's chest, "YAAAAAAAH!!!!!!"  
  
Apteryxmon didn't even have time to counter or evade the attack; the massive twin red beams struck him full in the chest and blasted him quite some distance away before he dissolved into data. However, his final screech, though filled with pain, was mocking.  
  
"I am only the tip of the iceberg, Chosen Children! Prepare to be annihilated!"  
  
"The tip of the iceberg?" Jenrya repeated, puzzled, as the Digimon downloaded the data floating about in the air, "I hope that doesn't mean what I think it means."  
  
"There are more where that came from? Yippi-dee-wee," Miki groaned, then cheered up slightly, "Well, at least we're not lost anymore."  
  
The rest fell over. The entire castle was in ruins, and parts of it were still smoldering from the fight.  
  
***  
  
"I don't know, guys," Takato said slowly as Guilmon came up beside him, "There was something weird about those two Digimon. Blavamon should have been destroyed easily by Growmon and Galgomon, but it took Guardromon as well to take him down. Something about this just doesn't feel right."  
  
"Well, we'll worry about that later," Jenrya replied, staggering a bit as Terriermon landed heavily on his shoulder.  
  
"Yeah, right now the priority is to find MarineAngemon, and then rescue Ryo- san, Ruki, Katou-san, Renamon and Cyberdramon," Kai agreed.  
  
"All right, then," Takato nodded, "Let's find MarineAngemon, and then go rescue the others, or try to rescue them. That Key sounds pretty hard to get, and the Portal sounds even harder to find."  
  
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Miki grinned, "Let's get going before we all grow old!"  
  
None of them saw the two black Digicores that had fallen from the defeated Digimon, lying abandoned amid the mounds of rocky refuse, crackling faintly with dark energy. Slowly, the two globes faded out of sight.  
  
***  
  
Shadowmagemon growled as he recovered the two Dark Digicores that had powered Blavamon and Apteryxmon and revived them. Carefully he maneuvered them back into their places amid the dozens of black globes that surrounded him where he sat, back in the room with the captives, hunched over the scrying mirror.  
  
"These brats are no mere weaklings," he murmured softly to himself, "This requires some stronger hunters."  
  
He stood and swept out of the room, but not before having collected the D- Arks lined up on the table as well as Ruki's precious cardpocket, leaving his three prisoners staring after him in shock.  
  
***  
  
Ruki turned to Ryou, who was shaking his head as though to clear it.  
  
"What were those globe things?" she asked.  
  
"Digicores," Ryou muttered, "Only the sovereigns are supposed to have them. How...?"  
  
The last was obviously to himself, and Ruki decided not to say anything more.  
  
'This is not good,' the tawny-haired girl thought as she stared out the open door at the bulky form that was NeoCyberdramon, 'It looks like there's more to this Shadowmagemon than we first thought.'  
  
"Guys, we are going to get out of here... aren't we?" Juri asked hopefully, wondering why the other two looked so gloomy; she hadn't heard a word of their hushed conversation.  
  
Her query was answered by utter silence.  
  
***  
  
As the youngsters began to make their way towards the edge of the abyss surrounding the cliffs where the castle once stood, Hirokazu paused and looked around.  
  
"Lose something, Hirokazu?" Jenrya inquired, seeing the perplexed expression on the spiky-haired boy's face.  
  
"Guys, where'd Kenta go?" Hirokazu wondered aloud.  
  
"Miss me?" Kenta appeared out of a space between two slabs of fallen rock, dusting himself off.  
  
"Yeah, yeah, dork," Hirokazu rolled his eyes, "Let's go. C'mon, hurry up!"  
  
"Hey!" Kenta cried indignantly, then, as the others turned away and began walking off again, he hastily shot after them, "Wait up!"  
  
***  
  
Many leagues away from the children, a large red-armored Digimon was making his way through the desert, flattening dunes of sand with his clawed, three- toed talon-like feet. His deadly fang-filled jaws snapped shut as his great nostrils sniffed the air, sending wisps of smoke wafting along the zephyr.  
  
"I smell humans..." his hungry voice was a low growl in his throat, "I smell Chosen! Beware the wrath of Karnodramon!"  
  
***  
  
~Oh, boy! Out of the frying pan and into the fire! Will the Tamers survive their encounter with Karnodramon? And will they ever manage to rescue Shadowmagemon's prisoners? Find out in the next chapter of Shadow Realms! Okay, that chapter was looong, and it contained one of the only fights so far. So what do you think? Any comments on the fight or on the general story? I know practically nothing about the card game, so I'm making cards up or just sticking in whatever card I read in some other fanfic. Well, review and I'll get the next chapter up week after the next! Meanwhile, next week there'll be a new chapter of Void!~  
  
Reviews:  
  
I've decided to start responding to reviewers, so.  
  
Bakura's Angel - Here's more for you! By the way, do you like Bakura from Yu-Gi-Oh, too? First time I saw him was in the ep where everyone got their souls trapped into cards and there was an evil version of him with a Millennium Ring. He looked so sweet as the Change of Heart card thingummy! Okay, enough. * sweatdrop *  
  
Lunamew - Glad to see you liked it!  
  
And I owe a huge thanks to everyone who reviewed before I started responding, so in order not to leave them out:  
  
A HUMONGOUS, COLOSSAL, MEGAGIGANTIC, EXTRAHUMONGOENORMOUS (errr, you get my drift) Thank You to Infinity Blade (Check out his 'The Silver Lining'! Man, that fic is truly AWESOME!), El Intruder, Chibi Ucchan (No, I didn't take that as a flame), Peter Kim, Crimson, attitudetwinz, WithoutMorals (Now WithoutMorals - Revived. Check out his 'Dark Wing' fic, it's great! Slight 02 crossover), Alan Wilkinson, Deva Ghost, Yin (D'you write? I wanna read your fics if you do!), silverlily, Diane, Piximon, Guilmon (I think I might've read some of your fics at one point, I'll have to check.), Jodie, ~LB~ (Yay! Henrika's awesome, isn't it? I love all your Henrika fics!), Takato Matsuki Fanatic (I like that! Even if you support one couple, you manage to read a story that early on seems to bash a member of that particular couple. That's hard work!), hh, Blue-jay and silentangel (I'm glad you like Miki! Btw, she's partially based on myself * wink *). THANKS Y'ALL!!! 


	8. Hunted

Disclaimer: Hey, I know I said I wasn't gonna put this up again, but I need to stick in a few modifications. Okie, first off, Digimon belongs to me. and pigs are soaring high in the sky, among the fluffy little clouds. * AHEM * Next, I own the plot of this fic, as well as Miki, Kai, Silvemon, Karnodramon, Shadowmagemon, Blobbermon, Blavamon, Apteryxmon, Feragmamon, the Golden Tetrahedron and Darkblossomon. And yes, I make up Digimon a lot. It's a pain in the neck, but I know virtually nothing about the card game, and I don't know a lot of Digimon either. This disclaimer is getting way too long, so I'll end it right. here.  
  
UPDATES: I've gone back to Part III and almost completely changed Jenrya's flashback on how the Tamers defeated the D-Reaper. Now it's slightly more like on the show, except it's a lot more complicated. Go back and read it over!  
  
Names: Matsuda Takato = Takato Matsuki Lee Jenrya = Henry Wong Makino Ruki = Rika Nonaka Katou Juri = Jeri Katou Akiyama Ryou = Ryo Akiyama Shiota Hirokazu = Kazu Shiota Kitagawa Kenta = Kenta Kitagawa (I'm assuming they didn't change his last name, but it hasn't appeared on the show yet, so.) Lee Shuichon = Suzie Wong Matsuda Mie = Mrs. Matsuki Matsuda Takehiro = Mr. Matsuki Katou Tadeshi = Mr. Katou Reika = Riley Megumi = Tally (I think) Makino Rumiko = Mrs. Makino Seiko = Rika's grandmother Lee Janyu = Mr. Wong Wild Bunch = Monster Makers  
  
~GAAH! The Digimon producers are stealing my names!!! WHERE the HELL did Takato's cousin Kai come from?! Davis has returned! Well, on to the more important and positive things... All RIGHT!!! Part VIII is here at last! Won't keep ya waitin', R, E & R!!!~  
  
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The Shadow Realms: Part VIII - Hunted  
  
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"Not again, my little boy's gone again," Matsuda Mie sobbed into her husband's shoulder.  
  
They were standing in the new Hypnos headquarters with the parents and families of the other Tamers, and Yamaki had called all of the Wild Bunch to an urgent meeting as well. They were talking quietly in the corner of the room, trying to figure out what was going on.  
  
"Where's Jen?" Lee Shuichon asked curiously, looking up at her mother, "Okaa-san, why are you crying?"  
  
Jenrya's little sister had grown a lot since her days in the Digital World. She was now eleven years old, and her dark magenta hair, which fell to her shoulders, was kept in two ponytails on either side of her head. Her bangs had been brushed back on the sides. She wore a pretty pink dress and a small red spring coat over it.  
  
"Where's Juri?" Katou Tadeshi asked angrily, with his arm around Juri's stepmother, "Where's my daughter?"  
  
"Calm down," Lee Janyu told him, "That's what we're trying to find out."  
  
"They've gone back, haven't they?" Makino Rumiko said quietly, her deep purple eyes downcast, "To the Digital World."  
  
Janyu nodded grimly, "That's our guess. Now we have to figure out how and why."  
  
"There's something else," Yamaki said suddenly, "Hypnos detected a wild one a few days ago."  
  
Reika spoke up, tossing her long dark red hair over her shoulder, "We've also had eyewitness reports of what's been called a giant black and white sunflower in Shinjuku Park."  
  
Megumi (A/N: Um, is that the blonde Hypnos woman's original name???), who was currently hard at work at the computer, looked up through her thatch of blond hair, now trailing down below her shoulders, "Sir, there was a disturbance in the communications systems and electronic equipment in Shinjuku earlier this week. The center of the disturbance seems to be have been located somewhere in Shinjuku Park. My guess is that it had something to do with the giant sunflower; it may have been caused by the mysterious creature itself."  
  
"But what's it got to do with our children?" Matsuda Takehiro inquired.  
  
"Most likely that sunflower was the Digimon we detected, and it met up with the children," Yamaki told him, fiddling with his sunglasses, which he'd taken off, "What came of that meeting is anyone's guess."  
  
"We'll just have to wait and see," sighed Janyu, "There's nothing we can do for now. We have no way to communicate with the kids."  
  
"Oh, Takato, please be all right," Mie sniffed, burying her face in her hands.  
  
Ruki's grandmother Seiko smiled reassuringly and placed a gentle hand on the unhappy mother's shoulder, "I'm sure he'll be all right. They'll all be fine. They showed that they could already take care of themselves four years ago, after all."  
  
Hirokazu's mother shook her head, "If you knew my son, you wouldn't be saying that."  
  
"We should trust them, Mie," Takehiro told his wife with conviction.  
  
"Yes, of course, but I-I just worry, you know?" Mie smiled and dabbed at her eyes.  
  
Shuichon stood a little apart from the others, fingering one of her ponytails and staring into space thoughtfully, "Lopmon..."  
  
***  
  
The Tamers had crossed the abyss around the late castle and were now trudging through the desert beneath the scorching sun, trying to find a hint of civilization where they could obtain some kind of clue as to where to go next. According to Kai, they would arrive at a MetalKoromon village in about two days' time if they kept heading north, and so that was where they were going.  
  
"Are you sure about this, Kai?" Miki asked, wiping the sweat from her forehead and trying to gather some energy in the crushing heat.  
  
Silvemon was fanning her Tamer with her large wings, but it wasn't doing much good. None of the Digimon seemed remotely affected by the temperature.  
  
"Yeah," the boy replied from her right, looking quite comfortable and not in the least bit tired.  
  
"How do you guys all stay so fresh?" Miki asked, glancing around at Takato and Jenrya, who were in the same condition as Kai.  
  
"Yeah! How?" Hirokazu demanded; he had been limping along and complaining frequently about getting stones into his shoes; Guardromon was now carrying him and Kenta.  
  
"Oh, don't you guys know?" Jenrya looked back at Hirokazu and Kenta in surprise, "Oh, right, you weren't with us when-"  
  
"When what?" Kenta asked immediately.  
  
"Never mind," the blue-haired boy shrugged, "It's not important. It's just that, in the Digital World, things are based on beliefs, in the sense that if you believe you're not going to get wet when you're in the water, then you're not going to get wet."  
  
"Huh?" Hirokazu, Kenta and Miki all threw him confused looks.  
  
Kai smiled, "Let's put it this way. If you pretend you're nice and cool, like when you're sitting next to an air conditioner on a summer day, you're going to feel that way. It's very simple, really."  
  
Hirokazu glared at Jenrya, "Well, Mr. Know-it-all, why didn't you impart this knowledge to us when we were stuck on that mountain being frozen to death, huh?!"  
  
"Momentai!" Terriermon retorted.  
  
Jenrya shrugged, "Well, Takato and I were trying to pretend we were warm, but in conditions that extreme, even Takato's imagination didn't do him much good. Since it wasn't working, what was the point of telling you guys?"  
  
"Oh, okay," Hirokazu didn't look at all abashed.  
  
"Come on, guys, even if we're not all slowly being cooked anymore, we still have to get as much walking done today as possible," Takato urged his friends as Hirokazu, Kenta and Miki tried their best to pretend they were comfortable under the blazing sunlight.  
  
"Takatomon, I'm hungry," Guilmon whined, rubbing his rumbling belly and looking pleadingly at his Tamer.  
  
"Guilmon!"  
  
"Sorry. But I 'am' hungry."  
  
"Brrrr... C-c-cold..." Kenta began to shiver, his teeth chattering as he spoke.  
  
"Don't overdo it," Kai admonished him with an amused expression, "You don't need to pretend you're at the South Pole, you know."  
  
Kenta nodded and squeezed his eyes shut as he tried to get it right, "Whew! Thanks, that's better."  
  
"I'll say," Miki was grinning broadly as she basked in her newfound comfort, and Silvemon was looking relieved that she didn't have to exert her wings anymore.  
  
***  
  
"Whaddaya want, ya giant yellow snake?!" Iodramon blinked in surprise at being addressed in such a manner by the small being he was attempting to speak with, a dark purplish creature with pointy crooked ears, large, slanted green eyes, red gloves and a red scarf tied around his neck.  
  
"You should show a little more respect," the great crystal dragon admonished the smaller Digimon, "Someday a mouth like that could get you killed."  
  
"Ah, whatever!" Impmon glared up at the large Digimon who'd awakened him so rudely from a peaceful afternoon nap, "Well, what's yer reason for goin' round scarin' folks outta their teeny tiny wits when they're tryin' ta get some shuteye, eh?!"  
  
Iodramon sighed; there was just no helping some Digimon, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. I'm under orders from the sovereign Zhuqiaomon to find a certain Digimon called Culumon. Have you by any chance encountered him?"  
  
"Culumon?" Impmon looked surprised, then thoughtful, "Let's see, last time I saw him he was in the other world, so bug off!"  
  
As he was stomping off in a huff, the little purple Digimon suddenly turned around, "Why're ya lookin' for 'im anyways?"  
  
Iodramon hesitated for a moment, then divulged part of what he knew, "There is trouble brewing in the Shadow Realms. The sovereigns believe the Digi- Entelechy may be in danger. It appears also that the Chosen Children have returned."  
  
The first two sentences might as well have been Morse code, but upon hearing the last Impmon froze, "Takato, Ruki, the whole gang, they're 'back'?! Are they outta their minds?!"  
  
The yellow dragon sighed heavily, "Yes, they are back. Three of the Chosen, Akiyama Ryou, Makino Ruki and Katou Juri, and two of their Digimon, Renamon and Cyberdramon, are being held captive by the Ruler of the Shadow Realms."  
  
"Juri's been captured?!" Impmon yelped, his green eyes widening at this unexpected news, "Okay, that's it, I've gotta help 'er. I've gotta help 'them'. Aw, buckbones, here I go waddlin' into trouble again. Sheesh, when will I learn not ta mess with stuff bigger'n findin' shelter an' food?!"  
  
He turned back to Iodramon, who was contemplating him with some amusement, "Whaddarya lookin' at?! . Willya take me to 'em? Or at least ta find Culumon? I won't be any trouble, I promise!"  
  
"Well, since you asked so politely." Iodramon pretended to think it over for a moment, enjoying the smaller Digimon's obvious impatience, "I will take you to the Tamers, if you will help me find Culumon."  
  
"Deal!" Impmon snapped his red-gloved fingers, grinning, "Pieca cake!"  
  
***  
  
That night, the Tamers set up camp in a sheltered nook between two particularly large rock formations in the desert. The temperature was plummeting, but with their active imaginations the children had no problems with warmth. They lit a fire almost out of habit rather than out of need and sat around it, enjoying the familiar light and warmth and each other's company.  
  
"I hope we'll get to the village tomorrow," Kai said worriedly, "I want to start looking for that Key as soon as possible. Who knows what Shadowmagemon might do to the prisoners. We'd better move as fast as we can."  
  
"There's no sense in rushing ourselves to death, though," Jenrya said, "We'll need all our strength to break into Shadowmagemon's castle, and if we're too worn out when we get there, it won't be much use going at all. We should take reasonable breaks every day and not turn in too late at night."  
  
"Momentai," Terriermon added, waving his ears around.  
  
"Agreed," Takato nodded, "We'll need all the advantages we can get to fight this guy."  
  
Guilmon whimpered unhappily beside him, "I'm so hungry I could eat the fire."  
  
"You could probably eat anything," Hirokazu laughed.  
  
"Yeah, I could," Guilmon nodded happily, "I ate Takatomon's shoes once. But that was before I knew what bread tasted like."  
  
" 'You' were the one who ate them?" Takato groaned, "So that was what those pieces of colored fabric and shredded rubber under the bed were all about. I was looking for those shoes for 'ages', Guilmon!"  
  
"Gomen nasai, Takato," the red bat-like ears drooped sadly.  
  
"Aw, forget it."  
  
"Don't worry, once we get to the MetalKoromon village, there'll be more than enough food for everyone," Kai informed the red dinosaur Digimon, chuckling, "Not that we need it, but the Digimon sure do."  
  
"Uh-huh!" this was from Terrier-with-a-hole-for-a-stomach-mon.  
  
His blue-haired partner rolled his eyes as everyone else laughed.  
  
Miki yawned, "So why are we going to the MetalKoromon village again? Besides for food, I mean."  
  
"We need to get some information as to where the Key might be hidden," Jenrya told her quietly.  
  
"And we need to find MarineAngemon," Kenta added firmly.  
  
"Uh-huh, we're gonna need all the strength we can get," Takato nodded, "So tomorrow we'll hopefully get to the village, get some clues as to where the Key or MarineAngemon is, and then set out to face the unknown!"  
  
"Tha's nice, chumley," Hirokazu said sleepily.  
  
With that the spiky-haired boy flopped backwards onto a clump of low shrubs and within seconds was snoring peacefully. The others stared at him in disbelief.  
  
"How'd he fall asleep so fast?" Miki wondered aloud.  
  
Soft snores from beside her called her attention to a Kenta in log state. Everyone sweatdropped.  
  
"Well, looks like it's time we all called it a night," Jenrya remarked.  
  
"Yeah, I'm feeling small again, Takatomon..." Guilmon mumbled, staggering over to his Tamer's bedroll and collapsing amid the sheets.  
  
"Guilmon, that's 'my' bed," Takato said, annoyed, running over and trying to extract his partner from his sleeping bag.  
  
Finally he gave up and curled up with his head on Guilmon's back. Within moments he had dropped off to sleep as well. Kai, Jenrya and Terriermon, and Miki all made their way to their sleeping bags after staying up for a while longer in silence, leaving Silvemon and Guardromon to take first watch by the fire.  
  
***  
  
Silvemon, stretched out beside the fire, suddenly tensed as her fur stood on end and her great black ear-wings shot straight up into the air from their limp folded positions along her neck. Guardromon, who was nodding off across from her, snapped awake.  
  
"Huh? What? Enemy? Where?" he leaped to his feet, making a quite a lot of noise, and was about to start firing attacks everywhere when Silvemon's voice, full of undisguised annoyance, stopped him.  
  
"Sit down, you great lump. I thought I heard something, that's all. And whatever it is, you've probably scared it away with all your jabbering and clanking."  
  
"So sorry," Guardromon replied, sitting down once more.  
  
Within moments he was dozing off again. Silvemon's pale eyes scanned the darkness around their small gathering, trying to penetrate the night and detect any malevolent presence beyond the firelight. Finally, however, when she didn't see anything, the four-legged Digimon relaxed once more and laid her head onto her front paws, gazing absently into the fire.  
  
***  
  
At the top of one of the two stone formations flanking the Tamers' campfire, a massive shadow loomed. As the creature shifted in the moonlight, a flash of red could be seen. Its eyes, which were completely black, without any visible whites, were fixed on the tiny flickering glow below.  
  
A low chuckle emerged from beneath the gleaming black and purple helm, "Unsuspecting fools. Soon, I will make my move, and when I do, you will all be nothing more than a memory!"  
  
With a barely detectable flash of red, the creature vanished just as Silvemon raised her head, all her senses on alert once more. After staring at the top of the stone formation for a moment, puzzled, the silver Digimon returned to her open-eyed dreams.  
  
***  
  
Takato was wide-awake, having been startled out of slumber by Guardromon. The brown-haired boy lay quietly against Guilmon, listening to the rhythm of his partner's noisy breathing in sleep. His mind wandered across a million paths, but always it strayed back to the single thing that had preoccupied his mind for quite awhile now. Takato fingered his goggles, which were in his hands, and shifted on the bedroll.  
  
"Katou-san." the brown-haired boy breathed, closing his wide, innocent ruby eyes, 'I promise I'll save you, whatever it takes!'  
  
The thought of Juri trapped in a dark dungeon, scared, cold, and possibly hurt, made Takato's throat tighten and angry adrenaline surge through his system. With an effort, he calmed himself down.  
  
'Getting angry won't resolve anything, Takato,' he told himself, remembering the Megidramon incident, 'You have to stay in control of yourself, or something like that could happen again.'  
  
Shivering, he opened his eyes and looked up into the peaceful red face of his sleeping friend. Guilmon's nostrils let loose a small wisp of warm breath that flowed onto Takato's face, scented with the aroma and familiarity of fresh bread. The boy sighed, and felt his eyes fill with tears as a wave of homesickness washed over him.  
  
'Don't be a baby, Takato,' he admonished himself sternly, wiping his eyes, 'Crying won't help anyone. Okaa-san and Otou-san must be frantic. I wish I'd left them a note or something.'  
  
But then again, there was no way he could have known that a portal would open to them on that day. Takato rolled over and sighed again. He wanted to sleep. To escape from the worries of his life, and fly free in his queer dreams.  
  
***  
  
Miki sat up against the wall of brown rock she had spread her bedroll beneath. Gathering her knees to her chest, the dark-haired girl rocked slowly back and forth, her bandana fluttering in the breeze as she gazed pensively at the shadowy forms of Guardromon and her own partner against the flickering fire.  
  
'This is all so weird,' she thought, 'One minute I'm just a normal kid, getting dragged around the world by her celebrity of an annoying Mom, and the next I get a Digimon partner and I'm off to the Digital World to travel with kids I don't even know and to save some kids I've never even met.'  
  
Miki smiled to herself, digging her index finger into the dirt beside her as her bright eyes landed on Silvemon's shimmering form, 'Well, I can't say it isn't kinda cool, having a Digimon and all. It's like a dream come true. Heck, it is a dream come true. Well, whatever it is, I hope it never, ever ends. Time to sleep!'  
  
And with that she curled up in her bedroll and closed her eyes. However, it was a long time before Miki managed to fall asleep.  
  
***  
  
Hirokazu volunteered to take second watch with Jenrya and Terriermon that night, much to all who were awake's amazement. For some reason, the spiky- haired boy was unable to get back to sleep after having been awoken by Guardromon's clanking. He and Jenrya sat on opposite sides of the fire in silence, listening to the crackling of the fire punctuated by Terriermon's loud snores.  
  
'I wonder how the others are doing,' Hirokazu thought as he stared blankly into the fire, 'Hope we're not gonna be too late when we get there, though we probably will be, at the rate we're crawlin' along. Ah, well, whatever. Leave the worryin' to the others, just tag along and battle, yeah that's it.'  
  
He looked up at Jenrya. The other boy was also deep in thought. Hirokazu returned to staring at the fire.  
  
'Change of subject... Let's see... Well, if Ruki really did have a crush on me, of all people, she's probably forgotten all about it,' he raised one knee and set his chin down upon it, smiling slightly, 'After all, she's reunited with hero Ryou.'  
  
Hirokazu had always looked up to Ryou, and had always cheered him on and basically, well, acted like all the other hardcore fans of the cerulean- eyed boy out there. But, deep inside, sometimes, Ryou just grated on the spiky-haired boy's nerves. Always showing off, stealing the spotlight, doing his heroics in everyone's face. Even though Hirokazu knew that Ryou didn't do all this on purpose, and that he was just the craziest, bravest, most reckless guy he'd ever met, it was still annoying.  
  
'Jeez, I mean, can't he act like a normal kid for a change?! I mean, sure he's famous, he's the master of Digimon cards, and, well, yeah, he's a lot older than any of us, but sheesh, I mean, the guy's so damn perfect it's irritating. Well, one thing's for sure, the girls all like him. Except for Ruki that is. And now, I'm not so sure about that anymore, either. Sheesh, since when did life get so complicated?!' Hirokazu grinned slightly to himself, 'Maybe it's what the adults call 'growing up'. Well, if this is growing up, I don't want to 'grow up', ever. Not if it means I have to turn into what Ryou is.'  
  
Shaking his head, Hirokazu decided that he must've caught brain fever or something since he wasn't exactly used to thinking so much. To take his mind off these matters, he settled for banging Guardromon rhythmically on the arm, making the machine Digimon complain about him denting his armor.  
  
"Hey, you're the one who woke me up with all your clanking," Hirokazu grinned up at his partner, "So I owe you this."  
  
Guardromon couldn't think of anything to answer to that.  
  
***  
  
Jenrya watched Hirokazu discreetly from the other side of the fire. The other boy seemed deep in thought, something that was very rare for him and quite amusing to watch. As Jenrya looked on, the spiky-haired boy's face contorted into a frown, lit up with a slight smile, darkened into a scowl, then was lit up anew by a slight grin.  
  
'Well, who knew watching somebody think could actually be so funny?' Jenrya thought, trying not to laugh, 'Well, since it's Hirokazu, and he probably doesn't think a whole lot.'  
  
After Hirokazu started banging on his partner's arm, much to the Digimon's displeasure, Jenrya returned to his thoughts, which were, for some reason, centered around a certain violet-eyed girl with gold-streaked tawny hair.  
  
'If Shadowmagemon does anything to her, he's going receive a visit from an extremely angry, 10-story-tall green mechanical bunny,' Jenrya thought, repressing a chuckle, 'Well, when it's put that way.'  
  
He looked up into the night sky, quietly contemplating the bright moon reflected in his deep gray eyes, 'Ruki, please be okay.'  
  
***  
  
At that moment, Ruki was seething with frustration and pain as she squirmed in her chains. Hanging by your arms was 'definitely' not the most comfortable position of the century, and Ruki had found that out the hard way.  
  
'Man, if I don't get out of here soon, I'm gonna 'die',' Ruki thought, gritting her teeth against the burning of her shoulders.  
  
She looked over at Ryou, who didn't look uncomfortable at all. Why, he was actually sleeping! Ruki shook her head.  
  
'How the heck can he stand this?!'  
  
***  
  
The next morning, the Tamers set out again for the MetalKoromon village. They went at a faster pace this time, since all of them were now walking in comfort under the scorching desert sun. However, Kai still wasn't satisfied with their efforts, and pushed them harder.  
  
"Aw, man, can't we take a break now?!" Hirokazu whined, falling to his knees in the hot sand, which he found pleasantly cool after a moment's mental effort.  
  
Kenta went down beside him a moment later, pushing his glasses up his nose, "Yeah, we're exhausted."  
  
"Quite complaining, guys, we've still got a ways to go, and we need to go as fast as possible," Kai told them impatiently.  
  
Silvemon agreed quietly, "I sensed something last night, and the feeling hasn't quite gone away."  
  
"You mean something's following us?!" Miki looked up in alarm at Kai's question.  
  
"I'm not sure," Silvemon lowered her head and closed her eyes, exerting her senses as she scanned the dunes around them with her extraordinarily keen hearing, "But I believe so."  
  
"Let's get going, then," Kai said seriously, noting the position of the sun in the sky; it was late afternoon, "We don't want to stay in one spot any longer than we have to. Judging by the kidnappings of Ruki, Katou-san and Renamon, and the attacks earlier, Shadowmagemon is out to get us. I don't even want to think about meeting one of his hunters right now."  
  
"You mean that something's after us?" Takato asked unhappily, looking up from an argument with Guilmon about eating sand.  
  
"Probably," Kai replied, scanning the horizon carefully as he spoke, "Now let's get moving, we can talk on the way."  
  
***  
  
"Too late," came Kenta's voice, tighter and at least two octaves higher than usual.  
  
"Shimatta," Kai muttered as they all spotted what Kenta had; a great red dinosaur-like creature making straight for them, its dangerous jaws parted in an earsplitting roar.  
  
"Oh, great," Hirokazu commented, "We beat two, another one shows up. Figures. Sheesh, what's Shadowmagemon got against us?!"  
  
"We're a threat to him," Kai smiled grimly, "And to his plans. He wants to find something. I'm not sure what it is, but it's something that's been there since before the D-Reaper. And it's very, very powerful. If Shadowmagemon gets his filthy hands on it, the Digital World is doomed."  
  
"Oh, great, what else is new?" Miki asked in an irritated tone, taking out her D-Ark.  
  
"Well, no use in getting psyched out over something like that when we've got a much closer problem at hand," Jenrya muttered as Terriermon leaped down from his head to the sand, "Karnodramon, Perfect level Virus type Digimon. His attacks are Devourer Claw and Crimson Fury."  
  
Kai's eyes narrowed, "That's one of Shadowmagemon's strongest hunters. You guys had better not underestimate his power."  
  
"This doesn't look good," Takato noted as the large Digimon came closer, allowing them to distinguish his features more clearly; he wore red armor that looked about a meter thick, along with a black and purple helm over his head, that only revealed his huge, lightless black eyes, inhabited by a deadly hunger.  
  
***  
  
Terriermon hopped up to the red dragon and called up to him cheerfully, "Hey, Karny me pal, you got time for a game of strip poker?"  
  
"Terriermon!" Jenrya scolded his irrepressible bunny Digimon.  
  
"Devourer Claw!" Terriermon hastened to get out of the way of the purple crescents that emerged from Karnodramon's front claws.  
  
"Guess not."  
  
"You ready?" Jenrya asked his partner.  
  
"Guilmon!" Takato called to the red dinosaur, who was charging Karnodramon with a sort of instinctive fury, "Let's do it, Jen!"  
  
***  
  
"Card Slash!" the two Tamers called out, "Super Evolution Plug-In S!"  
  
EVOLUTION_  
  
"Terriermon, shinka!" the small bunny Digimon glowed green and grew as he ran forward to attack, "Galgomon! Gatling Arm!"  
  
The attack hit Karnodramon's thick armor and bounced off without leaving a scratch.  
  
"Guilmon, shinka!" the small red Digimon leaped into the air, "Growmon! Exhaust Flame!"  
  
Growmon's fiery attack fizzled out as it streamed onto Karnodramon's helm. Karnodramon shook his head, snarled and scratched himself almost casually.  
  
"That almost tickled!" he mocked.  
  
"Takato! This isn't working!" Jenrya cried as Karnodramon wrapped his tail around Galgomon and began squeezing.  
  
***  
  
The bunny Digimon screamed and began blasting his Gatling Arm at Karnodramon's face, but Karnodramon pinned his arms to his sides, leaving him helpless. Growmon tried to free his friend, but was batted away like a rag doll. Suddenly a silver blur streaked out onto the battleground, propelled solely on its great black wings.  
  
"Lightning Scythe!" Silvemon managed to cut a small chip out of Karnodramon's armor, but then the enemy Digimon's jaws snapped shut over the small four-legged Digimon, "AAAAAAH!!!!!"  
  
"Silvemon! NO!" Miki yelled, looking frantically through her cards, "Oh, man, which card should I use?!"  
  
"Destruction Grenade!" Guardromon began pelting Karnodramon's tail with attacks in an attempt to help Galgomon, but so far he was failing.  
  
"That's it, Guardromon, just keep blastin' away!" Hirokazu encouraged his partner, jumping up and down and waving his fist.  
  
Karnodramon opened his jaws wide and points of red light began to assemble at the back of his throat.  
  
"Uh-oh," Guardromon muttered, scrambling to get out of the way.  
  
"Crimson Fury!" the wave of burning red engulfed Guardromon and blasted him far away.  
  
"That went well," the machine Digimon commented weakly as the dust cleared to find him lying on his back against a dune of sand.  
  
"Oh, man, Guardromon, are you okay, buddy?" Hirokazu ran to help his partner.  
  
***  
  
Meanwhile, Galgomon's data was beginning to break apart, "J-Jen! A little help here?!"  
  
"Jen! Hurry! He'll be destroyed!" Takato cried.  
  
"I know! I know!" Jenrya was scattering cards everywhere as he looked frantically for a way to help his friend, "Hang on, Galgomon! Card Slash! Alias!"  
  
Galgomon fell to the sand, leaving an empty shell behind in Karnodramon's grip. Jenrya and Takato looked at each other and nodded.  
  
***  
  
"Card Slash! Matrix Evolution!"  
  
MATRIX EVOLUTION_  
  
"Galgomon, shinka! Rapidmon!"  
  
"Growmon, shinka! Megalo Growmon!"  
  
The two Ultimates both lifted off at the same time and attacked together, both aiming for the small chip in Karnodramon's armor. All of sudden, night fell as though someone had just thrown a switch. The Tamers looked around, startled.  
  
***  
  
"Hey, what just happened?!" Miki asked in confusion.  
  
"That's how it always is," Jenrya informed her with a slight smile, "We're not used to it either."  
  
Karnodramon suddenly gave a blood-chilling roar and began to give off a strange, ghostly purple glow. He seemed suddenly larger and more menacing than ever.  
  
"Why do I have a feeling that's not a good thing?" Takato asked nobody in particular, eyeing the purple glow warily.  
  
Kai, standing beside Miki with a grim expression on his brown face, watched the whole scene in silence.  
  
"Rapid Fire!"  
  
"Atomic Blaster!"  
  
The two attacks merged and hit Karnodramon hard, causing him to drop Silvemon as he disappeared in an enormous red explosion that threw up huge quantities of sand. Guardromon picked Silvemon up and carried her out of harm's way.  
  
"Yeah! You got him!" Takato cheered happily.  
  
"Way to go!" Kenta called, leaping out from his hiding place behind Kai.  
  
***  
  
Kai didn't say anything. Miki, who was checking to see if Silvemon was okay, looked up at him.  
  
"It's not over yet, is it?" she murmured, seeing the expression on the blue- eyed boy's face.  
  
Kai shook his head without a word.  
  
***  
  
As the clouds of sand and smoke dispersed, a dark form appeared, standing in the middle of a large blackened crater. Takato backed up with horror in his face, staring at the creature, which looked up with glowing eyes of deep purple. A flash of red could be seen as it suddenly leaped out of the crater and landed directly in front of the children, causing Megalo Growmon and Rapidmon to move protectively in front of the Tamers.  
  
"No, it can't be," Jenrya said in disbelief.  
  
Karnodramon smiled, revealing rows of gleaming fangs, "And yet it is."  
  
***  
  
~Man, what's with the enemies that just won't stay down?! And are Ruki, Ryou and Juri ever going to escape from Shadowmagemon's castle? Find out in the next chapter of Shadow Realms! Well, this chapter was written pretty fast, but I don't really like it that much, so. yeah. Go on, review and tell me what you think. Part IX got pretty screwed up, I had to rewrite the whole damned thing. Well... Next week. A NEW chapter of Void, and another new chapter here the week after that. But I suppose you guys know the routine by now. Well, I hope you enjoyed this chapter!~  
  
Reviews:  
  
Bakura's Angel - Thanks, I'm glad you like it! Bakura rulz! In Yu-Gi-Oh, that is. ^^  
  
SaLLy - Well, glad you found it again, that happens to me often, and it's really frustrating, I can tell you that. I'm trying to update once every two weeks, for both Shadow Realms and Void, so I won't keep you waiting too long for the next chapter. Well, I dunno if it's going to finish soon, the plot's barely started, so. I dunno. Keep reading and reviewing!  
  
Black-Tide - Thanks for the compliment and the help! I really appreciate it! 


	9. Dream Come True

~Here's Part IX of Shadow Realms. I know it's really, really late, but I had final exams and wasn't allowed to go on the Net, and then FF.net got pretty big problems. And then I got lazy with my updating. So sorry, y'all! Well, here it is anyway. I know the title seems kinda weird, but just read on, and you'll see why it's there. Well, just, go on and read! And review when you're done, please!~  
  
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The Shadow Realms: Part IX - Dream Come True  
  
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Lee Shuichon bit her lip and sighed as she stood at the window of the new Hypnos building, contemplating the nightscape over Shinjuku. One by one, like dying fireflies, the lights of the city winked out, until all that was left was a mass of shadowy forms. Shuichon longed for home, for her beloved, familiar room to sleep in.  
  
'Onii-chan is more important than sleeping in your room,' she reminded herself sternly.  
  
Since Lee Janyu was already working with Yamaki and the Monster Makers full time, the Lee family had been moved into the new Hypnos headquarters, a tall, modern building made of steel and many sunglass windows, reflecting the light in day like a giant mirror.  
  
Shuichon walked back to her bed and flopped down onto its cold, unwelcoming sheets. At night, the building was completely dark, still and lifeless. It wasn't at all like her cozy home, where the floorboards squeaked and her good old mattress made odd noises when she shifted in her sleep.  
  
'It's no use,' Shuichon thought, shaking out her long loose dark hair as she got back up from where she'd been lying, eyes wide open, on the bed, 'I'm never gonna be able to get to sleep in this horrid dead office building.'  
  
She crept out of her room and through the hallways, until she came to the main Hypnos lab, where they kept all their complicated computers and monitoring equipment. Seating herself before one of the screens, she watched the data fluctuations without much interest. The building was totally silent. Wait... was that the sound of footsteps?  
  
***  
  
"Hey," the soft voice nearly scared Shuichon out of her wits.  
  
She gasped and jumped around, and saw a boy standing in the shadows behind her.  
  
Shuichon's immediate impression was, 'Whoa! Has Ryou's hair grown longer or what?! (A/N: That was actually my first impression of. well, you'll learn who he is soon enough.)'  
  
She realized the absurdity of that thought and shook it off, 'Sheesh, Shuichon, what's gotten into you?! Ryou's in the Digital World with the others, remember?'  
  
The boy was fairly tall and very tanned, which might have explained why she'd mistaken him for Ryou at first sight. He had spiky dark hair tied in a sort of ponytail at the back of his head. It looked ridiculously like Ruki's current hairstyle, but Shuichon decided to ignore that. He also had dark eyes and a cocky grin.  
  
" 'Don't' do that again," Shuichon gasped, clutching her chest.  
  
The boy cocked his head, "D'I startle you?"  
  
"You sure did," Shuichon smiled to show that she wasn't angry with him nevertheless.  
  
"Sorry, 'you' almost scared the living daylights outta 'me'," he grinned, "I thought you were some kinda Digimon ghost killed by that Shaggai thing, roamin' the headquarters."  
  
The magenta-haired girl suddenly became serious, "It's not a joking matter."  
  
He looked at her in surprise, then quickly sobered up, "Nope, it's not."  
  
Shuichon couldn't tell whether he was really being serious, or whether he was just pretending. She then realized that she'd never seen this particular boy before. Usually when Onii-chan's friends came over to visit she was in the living room playing on the rug or the sofa and so got introduced. She looked more closely at him. Why... Why did he look so familiar?  
  
"I've never seen you before in my life. Who are you, anyway?" Shuichon inquired, then wanted to strike herself in the head, 'Shuichon, that was the stupidest possible way to ask for someone's name that you could've come up with.'  
  
"True, haven't introduced myself," the boy winked, "Name's Kai. I'm Takato's cousin."  
  
"Takato's cousin," Shuichon stared. So that's why he looked so familiar. His eyes... they held the same openness, the same simple warmth as Takato's did.  
  
She'd never known Takato had a cousin, and it must have shown in her face, because Kai chuckled and said, "Oh, I see he's never mentioned me. Well, ya can't have everything in life."  
  
"Pleased to meet you, Kai, I'm Lee Shuichon," she proffered her hand and Kai shook. His handshake was firm and honest.  
  
"What a weird day," Kai chuckled, "First I learn my cousin's disappeared 'cuz o' some giant black an' white sunflower and then I meet a pretty girl in the middle of the night!"  
  
Shuichon blushed. He was talking about her! She blushed even more when she realized that she was in her nightdress and that he was as scantily clad as she; he wore only a pair of shorts. She felt her eyes widen. She'd been talking for the last ten minutes with a bare-chested guy and she hadn't even noticed. Shuichon's face felt like it was on fire.  
  
Kai, noticing her reaction, puzzled over it for a moment, then noticed his own lack of clothes. But he was less modest than Shuichon and it bothered him little. He just grinned at the poor girl's discomfort.  
  
"Well, be seein' ya tomorrow, Shuichon!" he called as he disappeared out the lab, "Ja ne!"  
  
Shuichon stood there for a full minute, face still the color of ripe cherry, before she suddenly blinked and called into the empty hallways, "Goodbye!"  
  
From somewhere far off she heard the distinct echoing sound of an answering chuckle.  
  
***  
  
Ruki looked wearily over at the chocolate-haired boy beside her. He was still asleep, the dolt! Over on her other side, Juri was silent, apparently lost in thoughts that Ruki couldn't even begin to fathom.  
  
The tawny-haired girl sighed, suddenly feeling somewhat alone, 'I wish they'd talk or something. Heck, are they gonna sit there all day?!'  
  
Ryou shifted slightly in his sleep, then became still once more, his head drooping onto his chest as he snored gently.  
  
'. Guess so,' Ruki heaved a sigh, staring at the grimy stone floor, 'There has got to be a way to get out of here. somehow.'  
  
***  
  
Culumon was currently in the middle of a forest, sitting on the large round rocks next to the bottom of a roaring waterfall, laughing and rolling about as the cool water and mist were sprayed into his face.  
  
"Yay! Culu, this is so much fun, culu!" the little white Digimon whooped, spreading his large purple-lined ears and bouncing into the river, "Ooh, that's cold, culu. Cold, cold, cold!"  
  
He continued to chant happily in a singsong voice as he did all sorts of fun things in the water. One moment he floated on his back with his stubby little purple paws behind his head, and then he flipped over, and, using his ears to propel him into the air, jumped into the air and plunged back into the water with a satisfying splash. Bobbing back up to the surface, the little white Digimon giggled as he attempted to tread water, using his ears as floaters.  
  
"Hey," Culumon cocked his head, his huge, innocent green eyes fixed on the foaming madness where the rushing waterfall clashed with the calm, flowing river, "Do you wanna play some more, culu? Huh?"  
  
With that he launched his chubby little body at the foam, but a moment later scrambled back out, choking and spitting out water. He flew to a rock on the other side of the river and sat there, shrinking his ears and checking for damage.  
  
"Ouch. That wasn't a very nice waterfall, culu. I could've gotten really hurt," Culumon stuck his little tongue out at the waterfall, "Bad waterfall, culu! I'm not gonna play with you no more!"  
  
His face scrunched up in a frown, Culumon jumped off the rock onto the grass and ran off into the forest. Within moments, the incident had fled from his mind and he was singing happily at the top of his lungs.  
  
"Culu, culu, who's the best friend around? Me, culu! I play games, I love water, I love mushrooms with jelly and butter! Culu! Culu!"  
  
***  
  
Juri contemplated the bright scrying mirror on the table dully. Her head felt heavy with fatigue, but she was afraid to let herself drop off in this frightening dark room when that awful Shadowmagemon could come back any moment.  
  
* She was standing in the desert, under the stars, with the other Tamers. That is to say, Takato, Jenrya, Hirokazu, who was sitting beside a down and out Guardromon, Kenta, a Ryou look-alike that she identified as Kai, the clone Ruki-chan had told her about, and a girl with short dark hair and bright green eyes that Juri didn't know, who was kneeling beside a silver furry creature that Juri could only suppose was her partner or something.  
  
Megalo Growmon and Rapidmon were both hovering protectively in front of them. What they were trying to protect the young Tamers from soon became apparent, as Juri stepped forward. A massive Digimon in red armor, with a black and purple helm masking its face and snout, and terrifying glowing purple eyes, reared up menacingly to face the two Perfects. It was surrounded by a strange, fluctuating dark purple glow.  
  
**  
  
"It can't be," she heard Jenrya say in a tone of disbelief.  
  
The monster smiled, revealing teeth that made Juri take several steps backward, "And yet it is."  
  
"He's too strong," Juri whirled around at the sound of Takato's familiar voice; the brown-haired boy stood at the very front, just behind Megalo Growmon and Rapidmon, clenching his fists, "He took two of our strongest Digimons' attacks without getting a scratch. This doesn't look good at all."  
  
"Takato-kun!" Juri gasped happily, "Takato-kun, it's me! Juri!"  
  
She ran forward towards Takato, her arms outstretched, fully intending to jump on him and hug him with all her might. Takato didn't seem to hear her joyful cry; certainly he didn't react at all. Juri didn't take the time to think this over as she reached him.  
  
"Huh?!" her hands had passed right through her friend, as though he was a ghost, "W-What's going on? T- Takato-kun?"  
  
Takato and everyone else completely ignored the auburn-haired girl, as though she weren't there at all. As she watched in a sort of dumbfounded daze, the monster attacked.  
  
"Devourer Claw!" deadly purple crescents flew out from the claws on the red- armored dinosaur creature's outstretched arms.  
  
"AAAAAAAAH!" Rapidmon screamed as he plowed into the ground, hard. Jenrya's cry of pain rang out clearly over the crash as the blue-haired boy collapsed.  
  
"Lee-kun!" Juri covered her mouth with both hands in horror, praying that her friend was all right.  
  
"Jen!" Takato yelled at the same time, then Megalo Growmon gave an earth- shattering roar of pain as he was also hit by the enemy's continued attacks, "AAAH! Ooph!"  
  
The brown-haired boy went flying backwards to land roughly in the sand.  
  
"Takato-kun! NO!!"  
  
Juri let out a horrified cry, and she ran to fall on her knees beside Takato, wanting to help him somehow, even though she knew it was impossible.  
  
"Takato-kun, are you all right? Please be okay, Takato-kun..." she murmured anxiously, wishing she could somehow do something for him, wishing it with all her heart as she reached to prop him up.  
  
Gently, Juri slid her hand under Takato's back, trying to help him up... and her fingers met the white fabric of his shirt. Takato's reddish-brown eyes widened and he propped himself up on his elbows, staring. Juri felt her heart leap as he hesitantly laid a warm hand on her arm.  
  
"K- Katou-san...?"  
  
"Takato-kun..." Juri's anxious face softened into a relieved smile, "You're all right!"  
  
"Yeah, I'm just fine," Takato grunted as he sat up and smiled back, then, surprising both of them, he pulled the auburn-haired girl into an awkward hug, "Juri, I'm so glad you're okay."  
  
Juri felt her cheeks redden as she smiled happily in Takato's arms, "I missed you, Takato-kun." *  
  
She awoke with a start, and her chains clanged violently, startling Ryou awake and nearly scaring Ruki out of her wits, as she attempted to sit bolt upright, forgetting where she was. Juri hadn't even realized she'd fallen asleep. Shaking her head, the auburn-haired girl smiled, remembering.  
  
'That dream... It seemed so real...' Juri felt again the warmth of Takato's arms around her, 'Did Takato-kun... really... see me? - She smiled - I hope he did. I don't want him to be worried."  
  
***  
  
Jenrya struggled painfully to his feet, as did Rapidmon, and the green- armored flying cyborg Digimon swooped back into the fight, launching barrages of missiles at Karnodramon, which resulted in a huge explosion.  
  
"You got him!" Jenrya cried.  
  
Rapidmon nodded, "If he survived this one..."  
  
Karnodramon emerged from the smoke utterly unscathed, "Uuuuh... Never mind."  
  
"He's too strong," Jenrya muttered, "This is not going very well. Takato!"  
  
***  
  
He turned to see the brown-haired boy sitting on the ground behind him with a dreamy expression on his face. Slowly Takato shook his head and looked up.  
  
"I saw Katou-san," the goggleboy murmured sadly, "She was right here."  
  
"Huh?!" Jenrya and everyone else stared.  
  
Kai, who'd missed nothing, just nodded thoughtfully.  
  
"Wha-?!" Hirokazu shook his head, "No way! She's stuck in one of Shadowmagemon's dungeons, remember?"  
  
Jenrya thought for a moment, "Who knows. Anything can happen here in the Digital World. Takato and Katou-san do seem to have a strange kind of link."  
  
***  
  
"Yeah, great, can we get back to the fight now?!" Rapidmon demanded as he wove and dodged among a hail of purple crescents sent his way by Karnodramon.  
  
"Right. Card Slash!" Jenrya yelled quickly, "Offense Plug-In V!"  
  
Megalo Growmon looked back, "Takato..."  
  
Rapidmon charged the glowing dinosaur Digimon, only to receive a large wave of deadly red light in the chest, "AAARGH!"  
  
Jenrya flew back and fell to the ground, clutching his chest. Takato finally snapped out of the daze that he seemed to have fallen into and leaped to his feet, running to his friend's side with concern in his face.  
  
"Jen! Are you all right?" he knelt beside the blue-haired boy, who was grimacing in pain.  
  
"I'll live," Jenrya got out through gritted teeth as Takato helped him up, "Rapidmon!"  
  
"Jen, we've got to try something else, this isn't working!" the cyborg Digimon replied anxiously as he extricated himself from the smoking crater he'd created.  
  
"He's right," Jenrya bit his lip, "But what?"  
  
***  
  
Impmon sat on Iodramon's gleaming golden head as the dragon Digimon undulated lazily through the air. The small purple Digimon was enjoying the gentle breeze that blew far over the desert wasteland. But at length he tugged on the red kerchief around his neck and scratched his dusty head as though something had suddenly come to mind. Iodramon sensed this and waited, his great curving horn-like ears listening carefully.  
  
"So, ya big metal thing, what're we gonna do ta find Culumon?"  
  
Iodramon ruminated for a moment longer, "I wish to start my search for the Digi-Entelechy near the south, for that is where the rate of digivolution has been strongest these days."  
  
"Oh, yeah, Culumon can make Digimon digivolve, eh?" Impmon solemnly gave his approval in the form of a slight nod that Iodramon obviously couldn't see, "Pretty smart, for somebody who can blind half the population just by flyin' in the sun.  
  
Iodramon sighed, but his piercing eyes twinkled in amusement, "Thank you, I suppose..."  
  
"Hey, when's it gonna be nighttime in this place already?!" Impmon scowled, switching attitudes at the speed of light, "I don't wanna sit up here all day, it's makin' me head go all funny, sheesh!"  
  
Iodramon sighed again, though this time he sounded like he was straining to repress an explosion of mirth, "This part of the Digital World knows no night."  
  
"Wha-?" Impmon blinked, wide-eyed, as he tried to absorb the information, "... WHAT?!"  
  
His carrier made a queer sound that came out as something between a gurgle and a sneeze, and was in fact a stifled chuckled. Impmon looked down at his mount in surprise.  
  
"Hey, you feelin' okay?"  
  
"I'm feeling perfectly fine, Impmon," Iodramon replied patiently, masking his amusement as he continued his relentless progress through the deep blue sky.  
  
***  
  
"Huh?!" was Ruki's reaction when Juri told her about the dream.  
  
Juri sighed, "You don't believe me, do you?"  
  
"I can't exactly not believe you," Ruki shrugged, "Who knows what can happen in this crazy world? So you say the others were fighting a huge red- armored dinosaur with a purple and black helm?"  
  
"Uh-huh," Juri replied, "It was really strong, too."  
  
"Doesn't ring a bell. And trust me, I know a lot of Digimon. Just how strong was it, exactly?"  
  
"Rapidmon and Megalo Growmon could barely stand against it, let alone beat it. Guardromon was out. There was a new Digimon that I couldn't recognize, but it couldn't do much either," Juri told the tawny-haired girl.  
  
"So, basically, they're toast," Ruki sighed, "Kuso!"  
  
"Oh, no," Juri said softly, "Are they going to be hurt, Ruki-chan?"  
  
"I don't know, Juri," Ruki scowled, "I wish we could help them, somehow. STUPID chains!"  
  
Juri recoiled as Ruki fell forward, straining against the hated metal objects. Her reddish hair fell in her face, tickled her nose and mouth, as Ruki twisted in her shackles like a wild animal.  
  
***  
  
Ryou, who'd been listening to their conversation without a word, spoke up in his grave voice, "Calm down, Wildcat. - Ruki quieted and stared at him at the use of his nickname for her - I think I know whom they're fighting. - He paused - But that's the good news, I'm afraid. That must've been Karnodramon. He's one of Shadowmagemon's best."  
  
"How strong...?"  
  
Blue eyes met violet, "He's a Perfect."  
  
Ruki bit her lip, "From the sound of him, they're gonna have to evolve to Ultimate to beat the guy."  
  
Ryou's cerulean eyes bore into her own, "Even that may not be enough."  
  
"What... What do you mean?" the tawny-haired girl whispered, eyes wide, "Tell me! What are you talking about, Ryou?!"  
  
***  
  
"Hey, Silvemon, you okay?" Miki asked her partner.  
  
"Never better!" the winged silver Digimon replied cheerfully, now on her feet and flexing her wings, gazing toward the fight with narrowed eyes, "But they aren't. I've gotta help, Miki."  
  
"But you haven't got enough strength," Miki argued, "You're just a Child, and he's a goddamned Perfect. You can't hope to beat him."  
  
"No, but I've gotta try!" Silvemon ran forward, faster and faster, till she was nothing but a blur, streaking toward Karnodramon.  
  
"No, wait!" Miki yelled, scrambling to her feet and running after her partner, "He'll kill you!"  
  
"Lightning Scythe!" Silvemon ignored her, and, with a deft whip of her long tail, sent white-hot projectiles whizzing toward Karnodramon.  
  
The Perfect was hard put to block the unexpected assault. He growled as they left bloody scratches in the exposed areas of his flesh. Silvemon landed before him, twitching her wings and pawing the ground as she readied her next attack.  
  
"Not so cocky now, are you?" she mocked, "Lune Gale!"  
  
Karnodramon blocked the attack easily, "No little Child taunts me!"  
  
"Oops, looks like I broke the rule," Silvemon continued, sending another wave of her tail projectiles toward Karnodramon, "What are you going to do about it?"  
  
***  
  
"C'mon guys, while Silvemon's distracting him, we can hit him with everything we've got, and catch him off guard!" Jenrya yelled, searching through his deck feverishly.  
  
"Uh-huh!" Takato extracted two cards from his deck.  
  
"Triple Card Slash!" Jenrya had opted for three cards, "Offense Plug-In V, Seraphimon, Power Charger!"  
  
"Double Card Slash!" Takato followed, "Offense Plug-In H, Boost Chip!"  
  
"Seven Heavens!"  
  
"Atomic Blaster!"  
  
The four screamed out the attacks in perfect unison, and the seven balls of light (A/N: That's what Seven Heavens looks like, right?) merged with the powerful beams of red, shooting towards Karnodramon and about to hit him right in the face.  
  
***  
  
"Silvemon, look out!" Miki yelled at the top of her lungs.  
  
"Whoa!" Silvemon quickly darted out of the way, and Karnodramon found himself facing the monstrous combination of Rapidmon and Megalo Growmon's attacks.  
  
The dinosaur's dark eyes widened and he held his front claws over his face, trying to protect himself against the inevitable blow. At the last moment he smiled, reared back, opened his jaws and roared out a wave of red... mixed with deep purple.  
  
"Crimson Fury!"  
  
***  
  
~CLIFF! :P Will Karnodramon be destroyed? Or is he still too strong? Will Impmon and Iodramon succeed in finding Culumon? Will Ruki find a way to escape from Shadowmagemon's castle? What will come of the meeting between Shuichon and Takato's cousin Kai? Find out in Part X of Shadow Realms! Finally, Part IX is done! It's a lot better than it was originally, I'm amazed at how long the part on Shuichon was. Probably 'cuz it had Takato's cousin in it. Amazing how easy that guy is to write. Cute, too. But I do have a problem. Can anyone come up with an idea to distinguish the two Kai's from each other?! I can't exactly call them Kai 1 and Kai 2. That'd just sound weird. So... any ideas? * looks around pleadingly * Or does Kai (the one that's Takato's cousin) have a different name in the Japanese version? Originally I hadn't planned to have Takato's cousin in the story, but I just 'couldn't' leave him out, for some reason. Anyway, please review! I'd like to get your opinions on whether I should bring more people into the Digital World. I'm planning to, but there are already quite a lot of kids there, so... I might make a third group, but... Give me your opinions on the matter! Anything but flames is accepted (those will be happily shredded in my pet blender Zew and the pieces incinerated by my good ole dragon Spew), constructive criticism and corrections are appreciated! I've been slacking off lately, I admit it. I haven't written a new chapter for a while. But review and maybe that'll get me going.~  
  
Reviews:  
  
Bakura's Angel - Thanks! I'm really trying to keep 'em in character, but it's getting harder and harder every time. * sigh * Anyway, glad you like it! 


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